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My poor cordyline..🫣

(28 Posts)
Shinamae Wed 04-Jan-23 09:11:53

I assume the condition of two of my plants is due to the enormous amount of rain we had and also the ice and snow. Can anybody please tell me will these plants recover and is there anything I should do?…

GrannyGravy13 Wed 04-Jan-23 09:25:59

I have several of these, some in pots and some planted out in the garden.

From my experience if you leave them until it gets warmer and then give them a good haircut they should bounce back.

Shinamae Wed 04-Jan-23 09:31:07

GrannyGravy13

I have several of these, some in pots and some planted out in the garden.

From my experience if you leave them until it gets warmer and then give them a good haircut they should bounce back.

Thank you GG 💐

Septimia Wed 04-Jan-23 09:48:04

I bought one to put outside the gate. The passing stray sheep keep eating it...

nanna8 Wed 04-Jan-23 10:16:41

I’ve got a couple of these. One has got very tall and has a little baby at the bottom. I also have a couple of dark red ones- not sure if they are the same plant but the leaves are the same. They like water and droop in our hot weather.

Shinamae Wed 04-Jan-23 10:50:24

nanna8

I’ve got a couple of these. One has got very tall and has a little baby at the bottom. I also have a couple of dark red ones- not sure if they are the same plant but the leaves are the same. They like water and droop in our hot weather.

The middle one which seems to have weathered quite well has also got a baby 🤗.. was trying to get it out to repot it but it’s quite firmly rooted

Callistemon21 Wed 04-Jan-23 10:54:50

We have two in pots - one has survived, the other looks sad. It may recover.

They dislike having snow, ice, cold water, left in the tops of them and we should have tied them up or put sacking over them.

They're both the babies of a cordyline we had which was planted in the garden bed and grew to tree size. Unfortunately it fell victim to the snow and ice one winter.

Shinamae Wed 04-Jan-23 10:57:33

Callistemon21

We have two in pots - one has survived, the other looks sad. It may recover.

They dislike having snow, ice, cold water, left in the tops of them and we should have tied them up or put sacking over them.

They're both the babies of a cordyline we had which was planted in the garden bed and grew to tree size. Unfortunately it fell victim to the snow and ice one winter.

I have read recently about binding the plants up,I will certainly do it next year but I had no idea,being a bit thick on gardening etiquette. 😁

Callistemon21 Wed 04-Jan-23 11:02:08

Ours are rather neglected, poor things!

J52 Wed 04-Jan-23 11:18:59

I used to wrap mine in fleece once the cold weather set in. This years been so mild that I didn’t get round to it. Like yours they are in pots, so I’ve just moved then to a sheltered spot.
As they’re large a little sack truck is a boon.

25Avalon Wed 04-Jan-23 11:28:52

Several years ago a mature cordyline in my garden suffered from bad frost and snow and appeared to be dead. I didn’t get round to removing it until late spring when I discovered a shoot growing from the base. It is now a mature tree again. So don’t give up on it just yet.

Davida1968 Wed 04-Jan-23 11:51:57

We had a large one which we neglected through a wet, cold, winter. (It was established in the ground, in a border by a fence.) In the spring we found healthy new shoots growing, so it was cut back, and (in time) it grew even taller. So please don't despair; all may be well in the spring....

Davida1968 Wed 04-Jan-23 11:53:32

P.S. And we live in the North!

AskAlice Wed 04-Jan-23 11:56:54

My DD and SiL had an enormouse cordyline in their garden when they bought the house, about 15ft tall. They hated it and cut it down to a 3ft stump with the idea of using it as the base of a bird table. It's grown again over the last 5 years and is now 6ft tall again!

Oreo Wed 04-Jan-23 14:00:45

We had one in a pot, it had grown quite high and seemed ok in the garden, but after all the very cold and then very wet weather found it all folded downwards like an umbrella😲
Guess I should have covered it up.
Looked weird so I pulled it out of the pot and chucked it.

NanaAng14 Wed 04-Jan-23 18:15:47

Thats exactly what happened to mine a couple of weeks ago- someone told me to leave them as they may spring back up in Springtime ,.
I'm not so sure , but I've had them years , I will miss them as a large feature in the garden 🤞

Shinamae Wed 04-Jan-23 21:26:44

NanaAng14

Thats exactly what happened to mine a couple of weeks ago- someone told me to leave them as they may spring back up in Springtime ,.
I'm not so sure , but I've had them years , I will miss them as a large feature in the garden 🤞

I am keeping Faith that they will come back to life, going to trim them back a bit if they don’t…. I know they are usually very hardy plants but with all this rain and then the ice and snow, I just think it was too much for them but hope springs eternal 🪴🪴🪴🪴🪴

lixy Sat 07-Jan-23 07:44:46

In a previous house we had one next to the small drive. I had to take it out as we couldn't get out of the car without being spiked!
It had a huge taproot, The plant was about 4ft high and the root was almost as deep. They are indeed tough plants. I hope yours survives.

BlueBelle Sat 07-Jan-23 07:54:40

I have a big cordeline tree 30 years old started off small it’s fine I have two others in the ground and one in a pot all are looking in good condition My bottle brush plant is at the moment trying to reflower what is going on????
Yours do look a bit terminal shinamae but don’t give up they seem a very resilient plant
If the roots are healthy and not been sitting in water they will throw up new babies Then when that gets going in springtime you can cut off the old dead stuff

Dont cut it off yet though

Shinamae Sat 07-Jan-23 10:05:45

BlueBelle

I have a big cordeline tree 30 years old started off small it’s fine I have two others in the ground and one in a pot all are looking in good condition My bottle brush plant is at the moment trying to reflower what is going on????
Yours do look a bit terminal shinamae but don’t give up they seem a very resilient plant
If the roots are healthy and not been sitting in water they will throw up new babies Then when that gets going in springtime you can cut off the old dead stuff

Dont cut it off yet though

Thank,you will see what a few days of dry weather will do…🪴🪴🪴

robertsilver Mon 23-Jan-23 04:29:57

Nope, don't cut them off. Leave them be and see what the warmer weather is gonna do. But you should've protected them from the rain by using garden fleece, which would've stave off the frost and wetness. Also, a little bit of mulching would've kept the soil temp a little bit warmer. But don't fret though, coz cordylines are resilient and can withstand the harsh weather.

So once the warm weather sets in, please don't forget to trim out the dead parts to give way for new sprouts. And since they've had to endure this near death experience, it'll be great if next time you're prepared to cover them with fleece or something. You don't wanna expose the cordylines to a consecutive death experience.

Esmay Mon 23-Jan-23 12:29:39

Like a lot of plants grown in the UK - they are an import and this time from Australia .

I echo what the others are saying-don't despair .

Leave until the warmer weather to cut right back -you can saw right through the stem and new plants will grow from the base .

They look like they need a repot -judging from the one in the centre .

Next year, place in a more sheltered part of your garden and mulch plus fleece well .

Driventodrink Tue 02-May-23 19:19:36

Had a beautiful one in a big pot that was killed off one very cold winter. Should be wrapped in fleece to protect or put in a greenhouse\porch if in a pot. To late for me but found that out later. All my neighbours have lost theirs after that severe frost in Dec 2022.

Hetty58 Tue 02-May-23 19:27:39

I sometimes have to cut mine down to ground level - but it does grow again, so the roots do survive.

Caramme Tue 02-May-23 19:57:59

They look exactly like mine. I read somewhere on-line to wait until we’d had a couple of weeks of relatively mild weather, then strip all the dead leaves off, feed and wait, hoping for the best. Don’t repot until they start to show signs of life. Apparently some plants do recover. Fingers crossed. In the meantime I have bought some baby ones. I will definitely protect them next year.