Help me save this tree

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• Dovefromabove Posts: 88,147

  April 2023 edited April 2023

  Hi @kieran.finnQm_nmLE0 and welcome to the forum 😊 
  
  I think that’s a Cordyline australis … we’ve had quite a few similar queries this spring. It seems that they’ve found this winter of erratic changes between mild wet spells and hard frosts really hard to cope with. 

  https://forum.gardenersworld.com/search?Search=Cordyline+dead

  
  

  If it is dead there’s a chance and you cut it down leaving the root it may produce several new shoots from the base so you have  a multi-stemmed version. 

  
  

  However you may feel that would be too big for your garden … on the other hand you may opt to dig it up completely. 

  
  

  After all, every dead plant is the gardener’s dream, a new planting opportunity 😉 

  
  Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
  
  
  
  
  
  

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• kieran.finnQm_nmLE0 Posts: 2

  April 2023

  Hi @Dovefromabove, thank you so much for your help.
  Just looked up some pictures of cordylines and that does look like what I have. Such a shame so many have died over the winter. When you say cut it down, do you mean all the way down to the ground, or just cut off the top bit with the leaves? I imagine it will take a long time to get back to its current size if I cut it all the way down to the ground.
  

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• Dovefromabove Posts: 88,147

  April 2023

  I’m afraid I mean cut it all the way down to the ground … and yes it will take quite a few years to regain that height. 

  
  

  If you want something like a small tree there, my personal choice, would be to remove it and replace it with something that already has some height. 

  
  

  If you start a new thread with an appropriate title and a description of your garden you’ll be spoilt for choice in the helpful suggestions you’ll get from fellow members here … we like a planting opportunity 😃 
  
  

  
  Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
  
  
  
  
  
  

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• Fairygirl Posts: 55,117

  April 2023

  I think a lot of people will be replacing Cordylines this year - either with the same thing, or with something different. 
  Not my thing at all, and they often look dreadful here after winter, but lots of people like them. They need milder, less frosty/icy conditions with good drainage, which is why they're good coastal plants. Inland and/or at any altitude [ especially on heavier soil] where it's cold, wet/sleety/snowy and windy, they don't do so well. 
  As @Dovefromabove says - if you need suggestions for something different, just ask 

  It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
  
  
  
  I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...

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