Cherry blossom dead!

Someone mentioned in a thread recently that it's not uncommon for a tree to flower and look healthy, and then just die! Sort of a last yahoo in its death throes. Well I have a cherry blossom at the bottom of a slightly sloping back lawn. It flowered as usual a couple of weeks ago and then I noticed the other day that there are no leaf buds on it! Now the flowers have gone it looks stone dead!

The reason? Maybe part of this whole winter thing that's had a lot of mention lately, but I also have a feeling that its position has been it's downfall. As you can see from the picture it is situated at the bottom of a slightly sloping back lawn. That lawn looks great at the minute but all through winter it is very soft and boggy. Very poor drainage thanks to underlying clay.

Water that does manage to drain off tends to make its way to the corner where the cherry blossom is. I didn't plant it, it was there in 2014 when we moved here. It has never seemed to really flourish since we've been here, nice flowers in spring, but patchy sparse foliage for the rest of the summer.

What to do now? Cutting it down to ground level is no problem. Is it common practice to take as much of the root system out too, although I suspect that will be virtually impossible. If I do decide to plant a large shrub/tree in its place how will the root system effect the new plant? What kind of shrubs/ trees would do well in a position where it can get quite boggy? Or am I better off just getting as much of the cherry blossom out as possible and leaving that boggy area plant free?

 

If it's dead dead then it won't regrow from the stump if you cut it down. The root system will simply rot away in the soil over time. You could remove the roots if you plan to plant in exactly the same space, as this will help remove any possible pathogens in the soil that could affect a new tree.