Snow damage to cordyline/spiky tree plants
 

The large plants/trees in my garden have been damaged by the heavy snow over the past few weeks. We have a few of these plants and I'm not exactly sure what they are. The biggest is about 8ft tall with a single trunk. The smallest is a reddish leaf variety about 4ft tall. They occassionally grow another "trunk" from the base. I think they may be a cordyline.

The leaves which have always been very strong have fallen with the weight of the snow and now, although most of them still look rather healthy, they are just hanging down by the side. One of the plants has about 5 leaves still pointing straight up but it does look a bit silly.

Can anyone help. Not sure whether to cut them all off and hope that they start growing back or just trim the weakest from the bottom/underneath?

Snow damage to cordyline/spiky tree plants
 

"Paulnotgreen" wrote

The large plants/trees in my garden have been damaged by the heavy snow
over the past few weeks. We have a few of these plants and I'm not
exactly sure what they are. The biggest is about 8ft tall with a single
trunk. The smallest is a reddish leaf variety about 4ft tall. They
occassionally grow another "trunk" from the base. I think they may be a
cordyline.

The leaves which have always been very strong have fallen with the
weight of the snow and now, although most of them still look rather
healthy, they are just hanging down by the side. One of the plants has
about 5 leaves still pointing straight up but it does look a bit silly.

Can anyone help. Not sure whether to cut them all off and hope that
they start growing back or just trim the weakest from the
bottom/underneath?


Just wait until their fate is obvious, then, if they have been killed, cut
them off. Be careful though as they can sprout from the stem not just
underground so don't cut off too much. Even if they are totally killed above
ground it is doubtful the roots will have been and they will eventually send
up a new sprout/s but IME it may take more than a year.

--
Regards
Bob Hobden
W.of London. UK

Bob - Thanks for taking the time to post that information for me. Cheers

hi
I had a similar problem with my cordyline, but not only snow damage......
I returned from a trip away and found that the leaves that were remaining on my baby cordyline (10 years of nurture and 3ft tall) had fallen off. They were healthy leaves, however they looked like they had been chewed off!
It wasnt until one afternoon I saw the culprit in action! It was a squirel that had scaled my little tree and was using the top to sharpen its teeth.
I was devastated!!!
Today I have wrapped the leafless sad specimen in garden fleece in the hope that it may grow back.
Could anyone tell me ....what are the chances?