Hi,

I was just wondering if anyone could help with this?

I have a Torbay Palm which seems to have struggled during the freezing conditions ..

Normally the lower leaves will dry out and fall off which obviously forms the 'trunk' of the plant as they do so. The new leaves are all stiff, healthy and the newest ones are pointing skywards ..

My poor palm is now just a mass of limp leaves and they are all drooping downwards .. I have noticed that quite a few of these in neighboring gardens are exactly the same as mine too.

Can anyone offer any advice here as it would be a real shame to lose the poor thing .. It is now about 9 years old and was doing really well until now ..

I was wondering if I need to remove all of the obviously dead leaves (which could possibly just leave me a trunk!)

Or .. do I just leave it alone to see what happens ?

Thanks very much.

Dave.

Hi Simmo, Yes, alot of Dracena palms will have lost thier 'tops' especially in your part of the world. Normally when this happens the trunks are still alive and will, shoot from the base again. Often, these shoots take a while to appear, so, please be patient. Its possible that the whole thing has been killed
trunk as well, in which case, obviously it will not shoot. Sometimes the trunk base and root underground will still be alive so dont dispair, you've got nothing to lose by waiting and just seeing what happens !!
I would cut the top off, just beneath the leaves and then just see wether or not any shoots appear. Often they produce lots of shoots at the base and then we advise that when these shoots appear strong, you remove all but 3, this will result in a plant with 3 trunks and these trunks will grow quick quickly. Down here in Falmouth, most of these Dracenas have 3 trunks from where they too died back a few years ago and virtually without exception, shot again from the base. As soon as you see healthy shoots appear, you can them cut down the trunk to just above these new growths.
hope this helps, Lannerman

On 1/24/2011 8:38 PM, Simmo wrote:
Hi,

I was just wondering if anyone could help with this?

I have a Torbay Palm which seems to have struggled during the freezing
conditions ..

Normally the lower leaves will dry out and fall off which obviously
forms the 'trunk' of the plant as they do so. The new leaves are all
stiff, healthy and the newest ones are pointing skywards ..

My poor palm is now just a mass of limp leaves and they are all drooping
downwards .. I have noticed that quite a few of these in neighboring
gardens are exactly the same as mine too.

Can anyone offer any advice here as it would be a real shame to lose the
poor thing .. It is now about 9 years old and was doing really well
until now ..

I was wondering if I need to remove all of the obviously dead leaves
(which could possibly just leave me a trunk!)

Or .. do I just leave it alone to see what happens ?

Thanks very much.

Dave.





Is that the same as Cordyline Australis? if so, then I have a similar
problem with 3 x 30yr old trees, I had a recorded -13.5 deg C on one
night in December which probably finished them off. I expect them to
regrow from the base. Here is a pix of two of them before the bad weather.
http://i723.photobucket.com/albums/w...arden005-1.jpg
Bye
Don

Janet is quite right of course. Although Cordyline australis is
tolerant of poor soils and fairly dry conditions, it produces faster,
more healthy growth if given adequate moisture and an annual top-
dressing of well-rotted manure or compost. The coloured leaf forms
tend to fade or dull down if not given a regimen of regular feeding
and watering, so don't force them to linger in thin poor soils, they
deserve better.

The ordinary green form is normally cold resilient to around -8C. but
with -10C and below being quite common this winter, many have
suffered. They have thickened, woody, almost tuberous rhizomes below
ground and most will be able to regenerate from these. Especially
those that have been established for a few years. In their native
habitat, many lose all top growth due to forest fires and are
perfectly capable of producing replacement growth. Depending upon the
weather, new shoots can develop at any time from spring to late
summer, so don't give up hope if nothing appears immediately.
Naturally, new shoots will need some protection during the first
winter or two - especially if there's a recurrence of the recent very
cold weather.

Which leads to an earlier point, there is no need to thin out the
number of shoots unless you specifically want a single 'trunker' or 3
trunked clump. It's purely down to personal preference and you can
allow every shoot to develop without any detriment to the plant.
There's a magnificent specimen in the front garden of a neighbour that
has 8 or 9 trunks having been chopped to ground level 10 years ago. It
is now a spectacular fountain of foliage some 5 or 6m high.

It has probably been pointed out before, but these plants are not
'Dracaenas', which are only remotely related and closer to Aspidistra
and 'Solomon's Seal' than Cordyline. Nor are they palms in any sense
of the word.

On 1/25/2011 8:21 AM, Donwill wrote:
On 1/24/2011 8:38 PM, Simmo wrote:
Hi,

I was just wondering if anyone could help with this?

I have a Torbay Palm which seems to have struggled during the freezing
conditions ..

Normally the lower leaves will dry out and fall off which obviously
forms the 'trunk' of the plant as they do so. The new leaves are all
stiff, healthy and the newest ones are pointing skywards ..

My poor palm is now just a mass of limp leaves and they are all drooping
downwards .. I have noticed that quite a few of these in neighboring
gardens are exactly the same as mine too.

Can anyone offer any advice here as it would be a real shame to lose the
poor thing .. It is now about 9 years old and was doing really well
until now ..

I was wondering if I need to remove all of the obviously dead leaves
(which could possibly just leave me a trunk!)

Or .. do I just leave it alone to see what happens ?

Thanks very much.

Dave.




Is that the same as Cordyline Australis? if so, then I have a similar
problem with 3 x 30yr old trees, I had a recorded -13.5 deg C on one
night in December which probably finished them off. I expect them to
regrow from the base. Here is a pix of two of them before the bad
weather.
http://i723.photobucket.com/albums/w...arden005-1.jpg
Bye
Don
Cordyline after frost. :-(
http://i723.photobucket.com/albums/w...n/IMGP0171.jpg
Don

Thanks very much to everyone who took the time to reply to my question ..

I was just wondering if I might tag a couple on to the end having read through the replies ?

Janet .. All of the leaves are dead .. None are remaining upright so do I take them all off now or just leave it as it is for now until the better weather arrives (assuming its going to !!)

The plant is about 3 feet tall now and stands in a pot .. Would I be better off transplanting it into the garden and letting it grow there so that it is no longer restricted and if so when would be the best time to do this ?

Thanks very much everyone.

Hi,

Thanks for everyone's useful advice. I have a question about what is meant by "trunk" though. We have a 10 foot tall Cordyline australis which, like everyone else's, has lost all its leaves over the cold winter. The trunk goes straight-up for 4 feet before branching into 3 branches, which each branch once or twice before ending in the (now leafless) heads 10 feet up (photo attached). Should I:

1) Cut the ends off just below the heads (going down as far as necessary to remove any rotten plant); or

2) Cut just below the first branching, so we're left with a 4 foot high stump.

I've read here and elsewhere new shoots will come from the "trunk", although I don't know if this includes the very substantial first branches.

Cheers,
Alastair

[Sorry for the excessive quoting. Can't find a way to delete previous post.]

Thanks for everyone's useful advice. I have a question about what is meant by "trunk" though. We have a 10 foot tall Cordyline australis which, like everyone else's, has lost all its leaves over the cold winter. The trunk goes straight-up for 4 feet before branching into 3 branches, which each branch once or twice before ending in the (now leafless) heads 10 feet up (photo attached). Oh, and the damage at the base of the trunk is due to cat's sharpening their claws on it, which doesn't seem to have done it any harm over the past 2.5 year. Should I:

1) Cut the ends off just below the heads (going down as far as necessary to remove any rotten plant); or

2) Cut just below the first branching, so we're left with a 4 foot high stump.

I've read here and elsewhere new shoots will come from the "trunk", although I don't know if this includes the very substantial first branches.

Cheers,
Alastair

Sorry, new to this so I don't know how to 'snip' quotes.
I too thought I'd lost my two palms this winter. I planted these as £6 pot plants 15 years ago and as they were 15 and 18ft high, so it was pretty upsetting.
However, I cut all the sub branches back to below the rot where the severe frost softened the insides. Now on the smaller palm, I have tons of shoots coming out from along the lengths of every sub branch! I have no idea how this is going to turn out or what shape it may form but it'll be interesting to see the outcome. I'm not giving up on the larger one just yet. I'll post some photos later in the year.

In case someone finds this thread and has the same questions, towards the end of last summer/early autumn the plant started growing from the very bottom of the trunk - see attached picture. I guess that I'll let it grow a bit more before reducing the number of new stems to two or three.

Cheers,
Alastair