Hi All,

I have a palm tree (or I think it is) in my front garden. The tree has looked fine for years, until my wife decided to prune it (she said she was just removing the dead leaves) before Christmas, and now it’s looking a bit worse for wear with all the good leaves now falling off.

Previously (before my wife pruned it) it was growing from the top nicely and had lots of leaves, and now it has next to nothing up top with more falling off each day, and more growing at the bottom. The top of the tree now looks black in colour. I have attached a picture of the tree taken today.

I would like to get it back to normal, if that’s possible? Any help would be much appreciated

Thanks
Chris.

It's not a palm tree. It's a cordyline or a yucca, most likely the former. Cordylines are sometimes colloquially known as torbay palms, but they are not palms at all.

The problem it is suffering from is not your wife's pruning. Pruning off the dead leaves is safe and normal activity. It is suffering from an unusually cold winter which has damaged a great many of the cordylines in Britain.

You are also lucky it is not a palm, a great many of those have been killed entirely. You are also lucky you still have growing heads from the existing trunk. Many people's cordyline trunks have been entirely killed, and they will get new growth only from ground level.

Snip the unsightly bits at the very top off now. Come the summer, cut off the dead part of the trunk down to the highest greenery. You will probably find the plant is unusually vigorous this year as its root system can support a larger plant than it is currently supporting.