Tropical Zone Gardening: Ylang ylang dying? To prune or not to prune?, 5 by nateMIA

nateMIA wrote:
Hi everyone, hoping to get some insight before chopping branches off my Ylang ylang tree. I live in Miami and was out of town for 4 weeks. When I returned my young Ylang ylang tree had dropped almost every leaf and has some black branches! Before leaving the tree had been small but full of leaves and very happy looking. I don\'t have a pre-leaving picture, but there\'s one of it as a happy tree, just shorter than when I left. It\'s been living happily in the same spot now for a few months. I added some top soil to the pot a week before leaving to replace some of the washed away dirt. The weather was a little dry these last few weeks, but there was some rain. Here are some pictures of the tree now. Any thoughts? Advice to save my poor tree? Should I prune off the dead looking branches? Thanks for any input!!