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My cordyline australis [8ft tall] has been damaged by snow, The leaves are now all drooping downward. Will it recover?
- 20 Jan, 2010
Answers
Either the existing leaves will recover, if they are only drooping, or as Janey says, it has a good chance of sending out new growth. Whether it will do that as early as spring, I doubt. More likely another year. In fact I once had one took 2 years. Cordy's are very hardy (or the green ones are) but can't be rushed.
21 Jan, 2010
in fact I belive they will take fifteen degrese of frost, so it could recover in the spring,
21 Jan, 2010
It certainly has been the long spell of intense cold that has destroyed the tissue in the stem. Shrubby monocotyledon's (which Cordylines are) don't have normal wood tissue like dicotyledons. Their stems are made of diffuse interwoven bundles of growth tissue and transport tubes for water and minerals separated by starchy material unlike the annually growing rings of dicotyledons that produce true wood. Once damaged by intense cold (ice crystals), it collapses having lost the turgidity that partly kept it upright.
The lower part of the stem often shoots freely from the base so don't remove it yet. Remember, the large rootball will want to replace it's former canopy quite quickly and any new basal shoots will grow much faster than replanting a new one. Leave it until at least the end of June.
22 Jan, 2010
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It probably will send out new growth from the crown Joyce. Keep the leaves on till Spring, they will help to protect the crown.
20 Jan, 2010