Dead Cordyline?

dugo

Hi

I've what I presume to be a ~18ft tall Cordyline in my garden and it got frozen something rotten during the snow; I was stuck a hundred miles away and couldn't get back. Pretty much all the foliage has dropped off now - and there's growing patches of orange gunk at the base. These photos are a few days old - and one of the remaining clumps of foliage has dropped off.

I've seen a couple of threads here on the winter wiping these things out; what should I do here? I've seen people talking about waiting till March - then cutting it down. If that's what you recommend, should I cut it to a certain height, flat top etc? Or does the orange goo mean it's toast right down to the ground? Should I clean the orange stuff off, prod the trunk to see if it's squishy, etc.

Any simple, idiot-proof(!) instructions you have would be most appreciated.

Thanks

Doug

goat2

i think that yellow stuff is a fungus growing, i would cut back this tree to within 2 feet of the ground and leave it, i would stick something in the fungus to see is there alot of spongy stuff in the plant, if it goes right through you may be late, but i think there are fungus killers going, but when cut back, they usually start sprouting from the trunk, you will see small green little nodules about may june and if so it will grow into a great specimen, but most important will be in april to start feeding the plant so it will grow strong and withstand the next winter

dugo

Cheers Goat2

Will give it a go at the weekend...

johno2

I saw a lot of this last year. I tried a few different things with different trees. Everything above the ground is probably dead. The best bet is to cut it right back to about 2 feet. Just leave the stump alone for a year and hopefully you will get new shoots coming out of the ground around it. Leave them for a year or two and after they're established you can get rid of the rest of the trunk.

johno