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I am absolutely devastated looking at my beautiful 15 foot high Cordyline after the very hard frost and -7 temperatures. The pictures speak for themselves. Is all lost or is there a possibility by some miracle they will recover.It's taken 13 years to grow them and they always look fabulous and are a good talking point with my neighbours. Please please give me some hope....Should I cut them back or just pray..
regards Russell



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I would just chop the dead bits off and leave the rest in the ground, and hope for the best. I did something like that to one of mine last year, it sprouted up from the base. Good luck!! :)))

4 Feb, 2011

 

Inspect the trunks for any obvious rotted areas - if anything's pouring out orangey stuff, you'll have to cut it back now, but if you can avoid doing that till late spring, all the better. I'd do nothing at all now if there's no rot - wait and see where new growth comes from - this may be up the trunks or from the base, or both, and when that happens, you'll know better where to saw the trunks down to.

4 Feb, 2011

 

Thanks for the advise,,My local Wyvale Garden Centre has one of these outside the front gate, I noticed that thay had cut the tops off just below the damaged branches. I aksed them if they expected it to grow back and should I do the same. Basically they said you can never be sure if they will grow back, it's just pot luck, also should there be more severe frost then that could obviously be detrimental to the newly cut branches.
I thought about cutting a few inches back from the damaged branches and then fleecing the cuts just in case.

5 Feb, 2011

 

Garden centres deal with it in this way now because they're on public display, but they know as well as I do that it would be best left alone until spring in terms of the health of the plant.

6 Feb, 2011

 

I would be devestated too, if i lost a beauty like that, keep your fingers crossed and i hope it pulls through for you.. im digging mine out this year, the few motley leaves that was left, blew off with the winds of the last few days... It has not been the year of the cordy, lots of folk have asked the same question as you from various forums, just plain sad....

6 Feb, 2011

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