Hi rdraper....any chance of some pics?....if not what sort of whitebeams are they? When you say the turf never grew was that before the trees were planted? What is the ground like in this particular area...sloping, hollow, as well drained as elsewhere? Is the newer planting the same variety as these, and are the conditions similar....light, water wind exposure etc?
Sorry to give you so many questions but you info is a bit too vague to be able to give any meaningful suggestions as to the possible cause of the defoliation.
__________________ Sean Trees are poems that earth writes upon the sky,
We fell them down and turn them into paper,
That we may record our emptiness.
- Kahlil Gibran |