Jacaranda

Hi, Several months ago I created a post referencing a horrible freeze that we had in San Diego. At the time, I thought much of my garden was lost but come spring it was amazing what came back! I had no experience with a freeze since it had been over 20 years since our last one - well before I was ever into gardening.

Of the biggest losses, were three Jacaranda trees ...or so I thought. One was three years old, and two were just a year. They were all about 5'-6' tall. Out of sheer laziness I hadn't gotten around to cutting down the "stick" that was left remaining of the trunk and then I noticed that all three are sending out new sprouts from the base.

The question is, how long will it take a Jacaranda to regain the height I once had? Two are still under warranty, so I could potentially exchange them but I hate to disturb them if they're still healthy and recovering. The growth is literally 1" high, so it might be quite a while to get up to 5-6 feet again!

Thanks for any insight, Christina

This message was edited May 8, 2007 1:38 PM

Since you have the warranty, I would probably return them. I'm not sure how fast they grow, but I'm sure it will take a few years at least to get back to the height they were originally. I'm surprised yours were that badly damaged though--it had to get colder here than it did by you, and I have one in a pot which came through fine, it dropped its leaves but it's got new growth going now from all the same places it had leaves before. So before you go return them, you might try scratching the bark up near the top of the trees somewhere, if it's still green underneath up there then you may start to see some new growth up higher before long.

Check that the warranty covers winter cold damage, though! This is not generally something they are obliged to cover for.

Resin

We have a lot of places like Lowes and Home Depot and even some nurseries that will replace plants for a period of time regardless of what killed them. If it was installed by landscapers though then the warranty probably doesn't include cold damage (I know this one from personal experience--I had new landscaping put in right before our cold snap and lost several things, but unfortunately the fine print in the contract said they'd only replace if the plant died because it wasn't planted right, acts of God didn't count)

Thanks, I'll check the trunks by the scratch test. It would be nice if it sprouted there too. The two that are under warranty are from Home Depot, so I know they'll take them back and the other was from my landscaper so it's a goner. The freeze we had got down to 26 degrees, which was lower than we've ever seen by at least 5 degrees - amazing what 5 degrees will do! Most of the garden turned black overnight and smelled rotten for weeks. I had a schefelera tree that died too and it was over 8' high, but it's got sprouts from the bottom too. I know those grow ridiculously fast though so I'm not worried about him - he'll probably be several feet high by the end of summer.

As a side note, do you have Armstrong Nurseries in your area? They now offer a lifetime warranty on their plants! The quality is very good, so I've never had to return anything but it's nice to have that peace of mind - especially for expensive things like trees and tropicals.

It got down to 18 here, that's why I'm surprised yours are damaged worse than mine. Even in a normal winter here we'll see high 20's occasionally and my Jacaranda's never had problems with that. The container was on a deck so it was a little protected, but it was sitting 2 feet away from the outdoor half of my inside/outside greenhouse thermometer, and the outside temp on that was registering 17-18 degrees. I wonder if it's because it didn't actually get frost on the leaves? The air temps were cold but frost didn't form on the leaves.

Yes we do have Armstrong here--there are only 2 locations in the Bay Area that I know of, but one of them is only a couple miles from my house. That's good to know they have that guarantee--now I just have to remember to save my receipts!

They had already shed all their leaves, so it was just skeletal anyway. It's on an unprotected slope. The 3 year old one did fine through the other winters, so hopefully we won't see a chill like that for another 20 years!

I just had another surprise on a hibiscus that I thought was dead (and yet again was too lazy to dig it out!). :)

Sometimes it pays to be lazy! haha

Follow up: I decided to keep the trees as-is and see how they do. Hopefully they'll thrive or I'll be sad that I didn't exchange them when I had the chance. One is already about 8" high, and really bushy, so maybe it will be a good thing in the long run and they'll be more full than they might otherwise have been. They certainly are getting acclimated!

Thanks for the posts!