Cheshire,
United Kingdom 
My Cordyline looks ok at the top but with a few brown leaves a bit lower down, it was doing great till new leaves started forming at the base should I take these off or leave them , it seems since they have started the leaves at the top are going brown quicker , they are bot h ten years old and stand about ten foot tall
10 Jul, 2010
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Leave all the shoots at the bottom. This is a sign that the top is probably dying. Fear not though, that huge established root ball has to supply something so these small shoots will rocket up (relatively), faster than the original did at first. This will be more noticeable next year. Leaving all will be better too and if you want to select the best next year to grow on and remove the others, well that's your choice but I think they look better multi-stemmed :-) When and if the main top growth does die, cut the trunk right back leaving a slight sloping angle to the cut top a foot ot two above where the new shoots are.
Perhaps wrap in fleece if the weather is going to be as cold as last January though! This has been for certain THE most commonly asked question on here since March!!!
10 Jul, 2010