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problem Cordyline

Retro1951Retro1951 Posts: 116
in Plants
Hello everyone, I don't know why but the Cordyline australis has suddenly shoe rotten centres. The brown leaves are now the new ones instead of the old ones along the trunk. Why does/did this happen? What, if anything, could/should I do about it?
Thank you so much for your thoughts.


Posts

  • Hostafan1Hostafan1 Posts: 34,889
    they don't like the prolonged cold weather we had recently.
    It may shoot further down, or even at the base
    Devon.
  • GardenerSuzeGardenerSuze Posts: 5,692
    edited February 2023
    @Retro1951 Lots of gardeners have reported problems with Cordylines in recent weeks on the forum. There is little you can do as @Hostafan1 has mentioned hope for new shoots. It is a southern hemisphere plant so we have to accept in a cold wet winter it will struggle or die off all together. If you do have new shoots your plant should take on a new multistemmed shape.
    I have worked as a Gardener for 24 years. My latest garden is a new build garden on heavy clay.
  • Retro1951Retro1951 Posts: 116
    Thank you Hostafan and GardenSuze, those answers make complete sense. I remember when we had a lot of snow which stayed for a few weeks (?) too, 2010 or something? All the cordylines around here (3 in all haha) completely disappeared/died, but they all came back from the bottom!We lost our sunscreen for front window plants and had to buy blinds... So it's the wet, not necessarily just the cold/snow. 
  • GardenerSuzeGardenerSuze Posts: 5,692
    @Retro1951 Yes I think it is sitting in wet soil that they hate.
    I have worked as a Gardener for 24 years. My latest garden is a new build garden on heavy clay.
  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117
    Snow isn't really a problem as such - only if it's feet rather than a few inches, and even then - if it's reasonably dry, it'll insulate, not kill off foliage/stems. It can break foliage though, which is why it's worth knocking it off any evergreens.  :)

    Swings between wet, freezing then thawing are the main problems for them, and if the ground's wet and not free draining, as @GardenerSuze says, that isn't helpful.
    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • philippasmith2philippasmith2 Posts: 3,742
    It also doesn't help matters that the leaves when upright can act as a funnel in heavy rain.  The centre gets very wet and then along comes the freezing cold.
    As others have said tho - even if you lose the growing tip, if your site is well drained it will usually produce shoots from the base and become multi stemmed. They don't really like giving up easily in most cases  ;)  
  • Retro1951Retro1951 Posts: 116
    The ground is very free draining, freezing/rain/freezing is the problem I think. After it died it indeed recovered as a multi stemmed plant. Thank you all for clarifying the situation.
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