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Gulf Coast Gardening Trees Texas Gardening

Pruning Orchid Tree After Freeze

2 years ago

We had a devastating freeze in Texas and lost our beautiful 20 foot bauhinia. We had to prune most of it down. It is sprouting back from the ground and from one part of the trunk. Should I go ahead and cut the remaining trunk to the ground and restart the tree from the ground or let the sprouts grow from the trunk? Worried about having an odd shaped tree.

Here are some pics of before and after.

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Comments (5)

L Clark (zone 4 WY)
2 years ago
I think the freeze changed the color of your dog
peachmousse
Original Author
2 years ago
Sadly she passed right before the pandemic so I adopted a new pup from the SPCA.
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I brought in most all my plants........but the epyphillums got it. I am not GREAT gardeners such as yourselves and it didnt even occur to me to bring the epys under the patio. All my hibiscus and honeysuckle got it as well as the shrimp plant, statice and a few others. Here in San Deigo, (el cajon 92019) we broik alla time records. But my clay pots i did bring in and will prune the epys in a few weeks. They're home is under the orange tree, which i cut all the fruit off of the day before the freeze.
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On a more possitive note your damage seems to be at the upper ends of your tree ...as long as the trunk above the graft is not effected you may be ok if it turns grey or black then it's likely toast otherwise you probably will have a new small tree by summers end..keep your fingers crossed and don't get out your shovel or chain saw just yet ...at the same time it doesn't sound promising ..yah you jumped the gun but mistakes happen ...buying older established tree shows good instincts ...planting it that early ...well live and learn David
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I would give things a few weeks more before you get near them with the clipping shears! I have a few things that are still looking peaked (Lady in Red hydrangea, beautyberry, lilium regale, and the only rose that I tried to cover with a sheet!), but even these plants are sprouting tiny new growth all over the stems.My hostas, spirea, Austin roses, etc are all rebounding nicely. And the peonies, tulpips, daffodils, centaurea, and others act as though the weather really wasn't in the teens for a week!
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Did you check for any life anywhere in the bark up and down the tree? You can use your fingernail and check for any green, but actually with Japanese maple you can see if the tree is alive as it goes from green to brownish-red where it is dead. If it has any life, you might be able to save it but may need to cut it back quite a bit and protect from direct sun. We had two in a pot on the deck that burned and leafed out again when moved to our garage to recooperate. Good luck, let us know what you find out.
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ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
2 years ago
Worried about having an odd shaped tree.

==>>>>

first off.. whats to worry about ... its already odd .. lol ... so forget about worrying ...

the issue is ... and i know nothing about these trees .. is whether it was grafted ... are the shoots from down low.. going to be the same flower ... and is that important ...

if not ... then 6 of this .. half dozen of the other.. your choice..

but my choice would probably be to just take the large old trunk down as low as you can ... without breaking off all the new shoots ...

in fact.. a pic of such might be nice... if you want to go back to tree form.. you would probably reduce the low shoots to one.. over the next few years ... at this point.. every leaf is an energy making machine.. so you want the plant to have as many leaves as possible to grow the tree ... but if you had to remove a few to get the old trunk out.. so be it ... but maybe it would be better to do that in fall ...

the other issue is whether this plant will stop suckering from below.. and will you be able to return it to tree form.. rather than a shrub ... again.. i dont know with this plant ... some trees dont just like to cooperate with such ...

and finally ... is this thing going to piss you off every time you look at it.. then just get rid of it ...

on the other hand.. if you are up for the challenge.. and it will be the most interesting thing you ever did with a tree .. then keep it around ..

flip the coin.. and make your decision ...

lol on the dog comment .. i didnt even see the dog in the pix .. lol

ken
peachmousse
Original Author
2 years ago
It is not grafted. I'm thinking to take the trunk down as well. Someone on here posted pics of a similar orchid tree and it took them 3 ish years to get back to a decent size rather than a shrub. I guess I just feel guilty about sawing the trunk down but maybe then it can devote all the energy to the new shoot it is sending up. I will try and get a better photo. This tree is a PIA. It drops seed pods too so you have these things coming up everywhere. If it weren't so pretty I'd just plant something totally different. Here's their post and pics Can/Should this Hong Kong Orchid tree be saved? (houzz.com)
davidrt28 (zone 7)
2 years ago
I would let it start from the ground (so yes, cut the trunk) and limit it to a few shoots.

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