Need help with my ylang ylang

Hi Everyone.....last year I purchased a ylang ylang from the USF sale, I thought I'd hit the lotto since it only cost $35 and was quite large....I replanted it (maybe too larger pot?) and it seems to have been loosing lots of it's leaves very slowly, I figured this was normal during the winter but now it's spring/summer and it's not really putting on much more growth. Looking at the top I'm wondering if that is why it was so cheap....it looks like it was bent over and it can't grow? Should I chop it off at the top?
Any suggestions on how to get it happy I would really appreciate it. I cannot plant it in the ground as it is 9b here and will probably freeze, plus I don't have the room for such a huge tree just yet.

Here's what it looked like when I purchased it.

Here it is now

Here is a closeup of the top

I would not chop this plant. From your last picture it appears that the apical meristem (the very top new growth) was damaged somehow. I see new little shoots have formed at that site near the scarred older area. There is no apparent reason to me for the damage, so hard to tell what happened, and I would just continue to water and fertilize and wait for the new growth to take off. Good luck!

THanks 4f4, it was like this when I bought it but didn't think anything of it, I guess that's why it was such a bargain. My fingers are crossed. I've been giving it 10-10-10 every month...do you recommend changing that?

PS....so far the Day Jasmine I have air layering for you is doing well, I've been checking each weekend to ensure it hasn't dried out....I haven't peeked at the roots yet as I don't want to damage what's there, I'll wait for them to grow into the spagnum. So far so good.

Cool!

no pun intended, but ur container is too small for a huge tree. tropical plant's leaves will drop when there is transition from cold to warm and vice versa. pls read the ff links to learn more...

http://www.tradewindsfruit.com/herbs.htm , http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ylang-ylang
http://www.agroforestry.net/tti/Cananga-ylang-ylang.pdf

HI MaVieRose, I know eventually it will get too big for a pot, but for the size it is right now I really thought it would be ok, I've seen larger in nursery pots around here (just more expensive than what I paid) We are only temporarily here so it will be planted in the ground in 2-3 years....if it makes it till then. I will look for a bigger pot and replant though and check the roots just incase. The one it's in now is double insulated and 21" in diameter.

Thank you for your help and suggestions

u're lucky u can grow them. i wish i could, but it is not available in my area, nor will it survive here. u're very welcome. it is always a pleasure to give a helping hand.

good luck!
ma vie

I agree with f4f. I would just leave the top alone and let it send up a new leader. I think your pot is fine for the next couple of years. I had mine in a pot for a few years before I planted it in the ground here in Zone 10b. It dropped dead here in my zone last winter, but I know they grow successfully in South Florida's Zone 10 and get huge eventually. By the way, the weeping growth habit is normal. Here was my Cananga in my greenhouse in 2005 (the date on the camera was wrong).

Here it was after being planted in 2006.

Here it is in 2007 after it had died back a little bit the winter of 2006 and then came back.

Lastly, here is the beginning of its demise winter 2007.

It doesn't matter though because the flowers don't really smell here in my dry climate. You need warm humid nights for the flowers to smell apparently. Here is a picture of someone's tree in South Florida. I should have recorded the name when I saved the picture. They do get to be huge trees.

I do still have a dwarf in a container that gets protection in the wintertime. It too has flowers that don't really emit.

I like that second picture with the Brugs and the rosemary and everything altogether. Nice tree, Clare! Sorry it doesnt' smell for you. Every time I walk by the dwarf I smell it in the air. I also agree that astc didn't need to pot hers up yet.

Thanks f4f. There's kind of a musky smell that both the flowers and the leaves have, but the flowers don't waft here. On a rare warm humid night, I can smell them though. I got some Ylang Ylang essential oil from Thailand, and I've been adding a few drops to my bath, and the smell is yummy.

Hi Clare, Your tree looks similar in size to what mine is, so sad that it didn't survive the winter. I have the Dwarf too but I haven't been too impressed by the fragrance just yet, it kind of had a stink to it....then again I've only had 2 flowers so far so maybe I just caught a bad time of the day. My dear friend had a huge Ylang Ylang like the one you posted when she lived in Ecuador and she said it smelled like Johnsons & Johnsons baby shampoo, how could I resist, I just had to buy it after she told me that.

I tried finding another larger pot but couldn't find one so decided to at least pull the plant up and check the roots. Luckily I did, it was rootbound on the bottom of the pot about 2 1/2" of roots wrapped around and around. I'm not sure if I did the right thing but I loosened the roots and trimmed a few. Then I potted it back into 1/2 the same soil, 1/2 new soil and watered it with B12 vitamins or something like that. So far so good, the shoot out of the top seems to be still growing and hasn't gone into shock yet after a week so my fingers are crossed that I didn't kill it. I know your probably all going to scold me for trimming away the roots, but I guess I'll live and learn if it doesn't make it.

What you did was called root pruning, and I wouldn't scold you for it at all. Root pruning promotes a lot of branching in the roots and it has a place in a number of applications, one of which is pot bound roots.

The miniature ylang ylang does have a kind of a stink to it- that's why when I'm asked to describe it's smell I liken it to fermented fruit. It is not at all a perfumy smell like the real ylang ylang, and it seems to me to smell much better if you catch it in the wind rather than stick your nose in a flower. It took me a couple of weeks to get used to it and I guess it's an acquired smell?!?!?! My plants also serve as an important design element in one planting, but I am glad that it's not the only fragrant plant that I have and for that matter I was thinking last night about how all the fragrant plants in my yard amazingly do not clash. Everybody seems to get in line and bloom a different week than the others, so I really get to enjoy them all.

That's really good that you did that. Ma Vie was right;-) What you did was perfectly fine for the health of the tree as f4f said.

Yeah, I've always described my Dwarf Ylang Ylang as musky smelling. I don't think I would have purchased it if I had known that it didn't smell like the regular Cananga. My M. champaca is like f4f decribed: the flowers are best appreciated from a distance.

Thanks everyone for the encouragement, hopefully in a couple of weeks it will start pushing out the top more and looking happier.

Maybe I should go looking for some of that ylang ylang oil Clare to tide me over till mine blooms....but then again I like the anticipation and the waiting game, it makes it all the more special when one does get that first bloom.

Just an update....my Ylang Ylang is happy again. Full of shoots and that top shoot is really coming out. Thank you all for your advice....
Lots of shoots coming off where the other leaves had fallen so it's filling in nicely.

here's a better one of the growth spurts

Yayyyy!

update on my ylang ylang.....looks like I have a bud....fingers crossed that it's a bud!

definitely a bud!! Good for you!
I have one in the ground that is about 14-15 ft tall and has not bloomed yet. It drops a lot of leaves in winter but always seems to do okay

AH doing the happy dance here for you!!! My mom had this huge Ylang Ylang tree in my native country, have not seen that over here in the US. Happy to see you are getting blooms!