i had planted an orchid tree in my backyard. I live in dunneloon, fl just sw of ocala,fl, and my question is will my orchid tree come back> it had gotten around 26 degrees here one day and since then we do get down to the 30's on occassion. i have heard of one of the dessert orchid trees doing well here but i have both the desert variety and the regular orchid tree. can anyone help?
orchid trees
Which orchid did you plant, the white or the purple? Both are very tough critters, weeds to many people, but the purple is especially resilient. As long as the roots are there it will come back.
But my sense if it is this: get a new one. You can't make a good tree from a bad tree and one that has died to the roots won't have a very nice form [although I don't see any standards for orchid]. Might be fun to try, though.
I have a couple of the white ones and cut it back to 4" wood every other year. Those folks up there in the lower zones probably think it's a typo! It's not, though.
Michael
I'd give it a little time yet before you make a decision--if things get a little too cold for them usually the first thing that happens is they lose their leaves. But then when things warm up in the spring, they'll often put out new leaves. Once spring comes, see where the leaves are--if there are lots of branches that have died back then Michael's probably right that it may be better to replace it, but I'm not convinced that it's died back at all, I think it's very possible it just dropped some leaves.