My trees: Alive, dead or in-between? Evaluating plants 2 months after Texas freeze
It’s been two months since the Big Freeze of mid-February, and my garden, which thankfully has many thrivers, is still revealing struggling survivors and dead-as-doornails. During those two months, temperatures have ranged from a low of 5 F to an unseasonable high of 92 F a few days ago — an 87-degree temperature swing. Poor plants! But some have really proven their mettle.
Still, I’m surprised it takes so long for some plants to show what they thought of that Arctic visit. I mean, I know what I thought of it. Then again, they spent that week outdoors. They’ve been stunned! Much too depends on microclimates: whether the snow was deep enough to insulate, whether succulents had super-sharp drainage to help them survive a week of snow and ice, whether they got covered by frost cloth or a sheet, whether trees overhead or a sunny wall gave them a little extra shelter, etc.
Also, the freeze occurred in mid-February, when our gardens in Central Texas are waking up for spring, so plants weren’t dormant but actively growing and even budding. All of which is to say that this was a highly unusual event, and even longtime gardeners don’t necessarily know how certain species will respond, much less individual plants in varying conditions.
As I began cleaning up all the brown, I turned for advice to horticulturists at local nurseries and public gardens and other Texas plant experts, which mainly boiled down to “WAIT.” Toward the end of March, some experts began calling it, like author Neil Sperry, who advised that if a plant (mainly shrubs, I think) wasn’t showing signs of life by then, it was time to replace it if you hoped to get a replacement before nurseries ran out of stock. Some readers still held out hope when I shared that advice, and they were proved right when some of my plants started showing signs of life after that point. But whether those plants will recover enough to become attractive visible shrubs/ornamental trees again in a year’s time is really the question Sperry was speaking to. He recognized that the average homeowner isn’t willing to wait a few years while their foundation shrubs regrow from the roots. Die-hard gardeners or those on a budget might be. As for myself, I’ve replaced certain plants I don’t want to be without, am waiting on others, and have rethought sections of my garden since Mother Nature gave me an opportunity to remove a few plants I’d been ambivalent about.
If you live in Texas and grow some of the same plants I do, you might like to compare notes. If you live elsewhere and know my garden through this blog, perhaps you’re curious for an update. So let’s document it all for science! In a series of posts this week, I’m sharing my post-freeze notes on each plant on my plant list (which can always be found under Get Growing in the menu). Plants that were stunted, maimed, or killed by the freeze are in bold, for easier searching. Asterisks indicate plants native to Texas.
But first, in the interest of keeping it real, especially for new gardeners, these photos taken yesterday represent two months of almost nonstop cleanup. Spring is always a busy time, when I cut back perennials and grasses, prune and shape shrubs and small trees, rake up live oak leaves, and add a few plants. But with all the foliage killed back by the freeze, the cleanup workload has been tripled. So yes, there’s a lot of greenery in the pictures, and that’s partly because I cut and removed a LOT of brown foliage and have replanted about 60% of the pots left outside during the freeze. People don’t always talk about maintenance, but gardens don’t magically neaten themselves up. Alas.
Happily, this is a beautiful time of year for gardening, and it’s healthy, earth-connecting work. Even if you’re sobbing as you pull out once-beloved, brown plants.
Let’s start with the trees.
Trees
- Acer palmatum – Japanese maple : In perfect health! No discernable damage or delay in leafing out. Neighbors have been commenting on how pretty it looks.
- Bauhinia lunarioides – Anacacho orchid tree*: It defoliated but releafed about a month later without any loss of branches.
- Bauhinia mexicana – Mexican orchid tree:
Killed. Extended hard freezes normally kill this plant to the roots. But this freeze was just too cold for too long.Update June 2021: It lives! It’s now 2 feet tall and growing back with seemingly no ill effects. - Cercis canadensis var. mexicana – Mexican redbud*: A little slow to leaf out but seems normal now.
- Cercis canadensis var. texensis – Texas redbud*: Bloomed and leafed out normally.
- Cercis canadensis var. texensis ‘Traveller’ – Weeping redbud*: Bloomed and leafed out normally.
- Cupressus arizonica var. glabra ‘Blue Ice’ – Arizona cypress: Was heavily weighed down by ice and snow, but did not suffer any broken branches. Looks healthy and normal.
- Diospyros texana – Texas persimmon*: Lost its leaves early (it normally drops leaves in mid-March, like a live oak) but soon releafed and looks healthy.
- Ilex decidua – Possumhaw holly*: Leafed out normally and looks healthy.
- Ilex vomitoria ‘Pride of Houston’ – Yaupon holly*: What freeze?
- Ilex vomitoria ‘Will Fleming’ – Yaupon holly ‘Will Fleming’*: Totally unfazed.
- Lagerstroemia sp. – Crepe myrtle: Very slow to releaf, and I worried I would lose it. But it put out new leaves about a week ago, although one section of its crown is a little thin.
- Leucaena retusa – Goldenball leadtree*:
Leafed out normallyand seems healthy. Correction: It’s leafing out on lower branches and along the trunk, but the upper branches are still bare. I think it will recover. - Prunus mexicana – Mexican plum*: Bloomed soon after the freeze, then leafed out normally and looks healthy.
- Punica granatum ‘Wonderful’ – Pomegranate: Killed to the ground. None of the branches or trunks on this 15-year-old tree have releafed. But new growth is slowly coming up from the roots. Probably the trunks should be pruned to the ground, but I haven’t done that yet.
- Quercus fusiformis – Escarpment live oak*: The leaves on every live oak turned brown immediately after the freeze and soon dropped. After a couple of weeks they releafed again. Live oaks normally drop their leaves and quickly releaf around mid-March, so this was an early drop and a slow releaf. Pollen production seems low this year, not that I’m complaining, but the number of caterpillars, which dangle and drop from the trees on strands of silk, has been epic.
- Rhus virens – Evergreen sumac*: The leaves turned brown and did not drop. I thought it might be dead, but this week a few sprigs of green appeared along the trunks and at the base of the tree. The main canopy may be lost though. I’m still watching this one and not pruning back.
- Sophora affinis – Eve’s necklace*: Leafed out normally and is blooming.
- Sophora secundiflora – Texas mountain laurel*: One tree got smashed by falling live oak limbs but stayed green. The other, bigger tree wilted and then the evergreen leaves turned brown, and about 2/3 of them dropped. After a couple of weeks, it began to releaf, but only on the branches that dropped their leaves. The branches still hanging onto brown leaves appear to be dead. No blooms this year of course.
Up next are Shrubs, Sub-Shrubs, & Woody Perennials.
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Digging Deeper
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All material © 2024 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.
Really appreciating these comprehensive and helpful write-ups! And commiseration. 🙂
I’m glad it’s helpful, Kate. I hope to look back at this series 10 years from now and marvel over what happened so long ago, having never experienced such an event again. Ha!
Pam, this is SO helpful for us in the area. We have been slow to declare some plants as “hopeless” and completely remove them, but this is more wishful thinking than reality! This has been quite a shock to our gardening sensibilities! Looking forward to your next installment as it gives me another guidepost to make those difficult decisions.
I think being slow to declare plants dead has been the smartest plan, Judy. But yes, we’re at the point now where decisions can be made with many of them.
Pam, thank you for this helpful inventory of your trees. My experience up here in Georgetown was similar. Pomegranate dead as a doornail. Yaupon hollies thriving. Possumhaws looking good. A key landscape element of a row of Texas mountain laurels looked awful but even the worst are now releafing. A desert museum palo verde which we had planted too close to the house and thus had to prune too radically cracked wide open at the junction of branches under its load of ice.
Bummer about the palo verde and pomegranate. No regrowth even from the roots on the latter?
My pommegranates trees (>15 years old) died to the ground but are mostly coming back from the roots. My palo verde has some green parts but no sign of leafing out on April 25. We’re in Austin and it went down to about 9F where we live.
Helpful info, Whit. Thanks for sharing.
Pam,
My AZ Elm reminds of an Elm from decades ago (in MS), during the “Dutch Elm disease
“Plague” that died top-down. The Ash, following Feb’s “snowpocalypse,” has “some sprigs of new growth, but MANY dead branches! Is it as dead as it’s looking? I’m in SE
Williamson Co., TX. Thanks.
Joseph, look up Neil Sperry’s posts on Facebook about ash trees. Here’s one: https://www.facebook.com/NeilSperryTexas/posts/10165675655115427. I’m sorry about your tree.
My palo verde tree sustained a lot of damage and I needed to prune off a lot of completely brown/dead branches. It was only installed late last summer by the landscaper and sadly became bent over completely to the point of touching the ground from the ice. The tag from the nursery indicates it is a Parkinsonia A Desert Museum Jerusalem Thorn. I’ve been watching it daily and have noticed that it is just beginning to show some signs of life with a leaflet here and there. Hoping it comes back fully. One of my neighbors has a palo verde that is leafing out nicely (it may be a different variety and was a few years older/more established) but the neighbor on the other side of me has one that is completely brown and showing no life at all. No rhyme or reason! But the good news is my Texas Redbud also came through with flying colors!
I’m interested to hear that your Desert Museum palo verde may live. I was wondering about those. Your neighbor’s tree that is leafing out nicely — could it be our native Jerusalem thorn, aka retama (Parkinsonia aculeata), which looks a lot like Desert Museum? But as you say, there’s little rhyme or reason after this extreme freeze!
Kelly, thanks for your report about the Palo Verde. Mine has not yet leafed out in Austin, TX that reached 9F.
I’m further north inAbilene. We got down to -2 one night, but had 9 inches of snow at my house. My Mountain Laurel is on north side of the house and looks perfect, never dropped leaves. Silverado sages lost all leaves, but are leaving g back out. Possumhaw is good even though we are a bit north of its native range. Crepe myrtles are leaving out. The only tree that seems to be struggling is a yaupon, but I’m starting to see new leaves.
Sounds like you had pretty good luck with your trees, Beth!
Hi Pam, Your garden looks lovely considering what it has been through.
I’m in the Dallas Fort Worth area. We benefited from the snow cover and had no ice like Austin. Our reported low was -2F.
Tree that laughed at the freeze and have not missed a beat:
Mexican Sycamore (Plantanus mexicana)
Red Oak (Quercus buckleyi)
Chinquapin Oak (Quercus muehlenbergii)
Texas Ash (Frasinus texensis)
Pecan
Japanese Persimmon (Diospyros kaki)
Rusty Blackhaw Virbunum
Japanese Maple
Texas Mountain Laurel (three were fine with not leaf browning, the fourth that was moved one week before the freeze died back to the ground)
Arizona Cypress
Iffy: Monterey (or Mexican Oak) – I have two baby trees , one dropped all its leaves and budded out fine. The second (with a dime sized diameter is struggling to rebud)
Dead:
Italian Stone Pine
I’m afraid my shrubs have been hit much harder. I am waiting….
Thanks for the comprehensive list from your garden in DFW, MaryClare. I’m most surprised about your healthy mountain laurels, considering that you’re farther north and got colder. As for the shrubs, yes, they really took a beating.
Our February event was nothing like yours, but it’s amazing how much damage it did to evergreen shrubs. From outright killing them, to defoliating them, killing the tips (as they were loving life before the cold and actively growing) or just damaging the foliage enough to make it unattractive. I read someone online (wish I could remember who) refer to the event as the Valentine’s Day massacre. An apt description me thinks.
Valentine’s Day Massacre — yes, that’s apt. It’s interesting that our two regions, so far apart, both got hit then.
Thank you for this update. I REALLY appreciate your being candid about the time it takes to tend to the garden in spring and how THIS year made it much more difficult. As a large suburban gardener/naturalist here in Katy, there are very few of our types to commiserate with…
We had little snow, mostly ice but not as low temps. Oaks, holly’s, vitex and crape myrtles are all fine. Small citrus survived with cover/lights at varying degrees, but my 14 yr old Tx Republic Orange that was too large to cover is dead dead dead. 25’ awabuki viburnums are sprouting from the roots.
I appreciate the work of Neil Sperry, but I’m secretly planning to taking pictures to prove how wrong he was to not encourage some patience.
Hah, watch out, Neil! 😉 Thanks for sharing your own list from your garden in Katy. I’m sorry about your orange tree.
What a painful process this is, Pam. I’m sure your review is valuable to your fellow Texas gardeners, though. The closest I’ve come to anything like this was one extended heatwave, during which we peaked and held at 110F and didn’t even dip below 100F at night until well after midnight for days. I thought I’d lost our well-established lemon tree but it taught me that it knows what to do when hit like that – drop all the fruit and tough it out. My losses were trivial compared to yours.
That’s awfully hot, Kris. Whew! I’m glad your lemon tree knew how to hunker down and survive it.
I’m experiencing similar plant successes & failures in the north San Antonio area. Trees have all recovered beautifully…Live Oak, Monterrey Oak, Chinquapin Oak, Red Oaks, Elms, & Redbud. TX Mtn. Laurel held its own…a few brown leaves is all. Sago Palms – dead. Pyracantha (10-12- high) look dead but green leaves coming out on the branches and at base. Planning to take these 2 down since their shape is a mess and replace with Yaupon Holly. Crepe Myrtles are slow in putting out new leaves. We got down to around 5 degrees two nights in a row, first night was around 10 and daytime temps never got above freezing from Sunday – Wednesday.
Thanks for sharing your survive/die list too, Darcy. Are the sago palms definitely dead, do you think? They can be so slow to releaf after a deep freeze. How does one know when they’re past the point of no return?
This is so helpful! I’m in east Austin & it helps so much to compare notes with you. Thank you so much!
You’re welcome, Kate. It does help to compare notes with other gardeners!
For goodness sakes. Your poor garden took a terrible hit. I am glad to hear you are coming to grips with it and your garden is too.
Oh yes, I’ve finally reached the final stage: acceptance. 🙂
I’m glad your garden is recovering well. So much does seem to depend on location but there was no hope for my pittosporums. They are completely dead. As is most of the growth on the fig ivy which covered all my walls. But only dead to the ground. All things that normally die to the ground in my garden seem to be coming back but very slowly. I am concerned about a lot of dead limbs on some plants as the new growth, spotty in places, will never look the same. Some of my many mountain laurels are dead to the ground but others survived almost untouched. I saw in the paper that it was France’s turn to have a killing freezing with much of the 2021 wine crop lost completely. Global warming has much to answer for.
Which means we have a lot to answer for, I’m afraid. I’m curious — were your killed-back mountain laurels your bigger, more established ones? Or is there no discernible pattern?
This is so useful to compare notes like this. The yaupon holly is putting out tons of new leaves. The redbud and the Mexican plum didn’t miss a beat. And the live oak is putting out all that new green.
The mountain laurel is looking puny, and I haven’t wanted to touch it yet. The pomegranate is putting out growth at the base but it hasn’t leafed out as usual. How late can I wait to cut it back, do you think?
I want to wait a few more months before declaring the sago palms dead.
I think you can wait forever to prune back your pom, if you want. But to make it easier to shape new growth, I’m planning to cut mine back soon. Yes, wait on the sagos! They’re slow to recover, and you never know.
Your posts have been so helpful! We have faired pretty well, with some notable questions and errors on my part. My biggest error, I think, was cutting back my Pride of Barbados almost to the ground. It was so big and now I’m hearing I really should have waited. It shows no signs of life from the roots and I’m afraid it’s gone completely. My Asian Jasmine was the biggest surprise: the bark was badly split at the roots and I had it all (covering about a 100’ fence) removed. Low and behold it is coming back at the roots! My Japanese Yews took a horrible hit and I’m unsure they will ever look good again, even if they aren’t fully dead. I’d love to replace them with something native, if you have any recommendations for a tallish evergreen screen plant, I’m all ears! Lastly, I’ve not seen anyone mention Spanish Oaks. Ours look just horrible. Two are primarily leafing out from the main branches rather than the ends, and one is barely producing any leaves at all, I fear we’ve lost it completely. I’d love to know if any of your other readers are experiencing similar issues with their Spanish Oaks.
Thanks, Michelle. I don’t think you’re likely to have hurt your Pride of Barbados by cutting it back after the freeze. A friend has said hers is just now putting out new growth at the roots, so perhaps yours will too. As for native evergreen alternatives to Japanese yew (for shade/part shade, yes?), look at yaupon holly, evergreen sumac, rusty blackhaw viburnum, even Texas mountain laurel (although blooms will be few). I’m sure there are others, but that’s what comes immediately to mind.
Regarding Spanish oak, I haven’t heard anything specific, but many trees are in shock and releafing slowly or patchily. Give them time and water deeply this summer.
Appreciate this post so much. I wonder if my grown-from-seed Mountain Laurel left behind in Austin survived? Probably not. My kidneywood, Eysenhardtia texana, is finally showing some green. I’m finding a lot of my plants are hesitant to leaf out. I don’t blame them.
I bet it did! My daughter’s grown-from-seed mountain laurel was the one that fared best in my garden. That’s good news about your kidneywood.
This is so helpful! I lost all my trees, planted last spring: 2 Palo verde Desert Museum, 3 Olive Arbequina, 3 Loquat, and one Mexican White Oak. (That last one is baffling, since the other Oak I still had in a pot survived just fine. It pays to be lazy?) Our Live Oak has leafed out and looks great; our next door neighbor’s isn’t at all so far. Their Shumard Oak is fully leafed out, and ours looks like a 16 year old trying to grow a beard: patchy and pathetic. Weird!
Oh, that’s painful to hear about your trees, Wendy. As for the oaks in your yard and your neighbor’s, it IS weird to see how the same plant responds differently across Austin, or even across a single garden. It’s been a big shock to the trees. Hopefully many late leafers will rally.
Hi Pam – thank you for this baseline for comparison. That’s my daily routine…I shuffle around the garden looking at dead, brown limbs and things hoping for some bud of green to show up. I had a lot of citrus trees that took it hard. One was a fifteen year old Valencia orange that I planted from seed about 25 ft tall. It is brown and crispy but is shooting sprouts from way down on the trunk, near the ground. Really, all my trees and shrubs have been slow to grow and are trying to bud at the base. The ones that hurt the most are my beautiful 20 ft tall fruitless olives that were budding new growth on Feb 14th. However, a few have sent a small number of shoots up from the roots. I’m also thrilled to see my prized ujukitsu citrus releaf, albeit slowly. Pomegranates are sprouting from the base, the branches that sprouted have withered. Sad but hopeful this spring. Also, my bay laurel seemed to pull through but after a pretty late hard prune it just gave up. We will garden on where hope does spring eternal! Montgomery, Tx.
“Sad but hopeful” sums it up well for all of us, I think, Charlene. Thanks for sharing your losses, and yes, we will garden on!
I wonder if a home owner could pay for a rider to their property insurance that would cover landscaping?
There’s probably a way to insure anything, but what would it cost?
It doesn’t feel that way, but being in town helped your trees! Out here (off Hamilton Pool Road), things are slow to return. I may have lost our beloved Celeste Fig, planted by my son when he was young. I refuse to admit it might be gone. Our anacacho orchid is just coming back. Our highly productive loquat that we spend last summer’s quarantine jarring jams (such happy memories), appears to be dead. heartbreaking. Our 5 year old Meyer’s lemon died too, but I say good riddance as we never got one fruit!
I’m so sorry about your losses, Leslie. That’s a lot to lose. I’m not often grateful for the heat island effect of being in town, but sometimes it does help.
I’m sick about my 3 pomegranates. I had a great harvest last year and looked forward to more. They are all 3 sending shoots up from the roots, but, how long will it take to get fruit again? Do we start the 5 year count over again? If so, maybe I need to go out and buy 3 year old trees. I finally gave my husband permission to get out the chain saw and the dead trunks are off. They were very brittle so I know they weren’t going to leaf out. My Meyer lemon was in a pot in a greenhouse that lost heat for several hours killing almost all the plants I had in there. But, it has leafed out and has a bloom. The anacacho orchid has blooms. Mountain Laurels were unpredictable. 2 that were 12′ apart had totally different results. One looks dead and the other stayed green and has lots of new growth on it. Texas Redbud, yaupon hollies all good. Sweet Almond Verbena is coming back from the roots.
I don’t know the answer about the pomegranates, Linda. But my guess would be to go out and buy new undamaged trees (not trees that sat in a Texas nursery yard in February) if you want fruit again soon. I’m sorry your trees took such a beating but glad many are making a rebound.
I was worried about the Canby oaks I planted since it’s not super common, but all immediately dropped leaves and have since releafed, looking great. I was really worried, since this is one that I’ve planted with future climate in mind.
Arroyo sweetwood– same thing. The really young ones are releafing from the base, though I didn’t see new growth til this week and had nearly written them off. The mature specimen at The Natural Gardener was completely releafing two weeks ago. I will definitely be planting more of both of these in the future. If only they were easier to find!
It’s interesting to hear about these, Lori. I’m vaguely familiar with arroyo sweetwood, but the canby oak I’d never heard of.
We have a very large 22-year-old tree in the front I believe it’s some sort of an ash it’s taller than our two-story house it was in full bud when the freeze hit. The buds are brown and still on the tree a lot of them have fallen off there is new growth lower on the tree but nothing up high on the branches. Just new branches forming off of the trunk. Any idea if this will come back? This is a HUGE tree to have to cut downed not.
I’m sorry about your tree, Bonnie. I really couldn’t hazard a guess about whether it can come back. If it was mine, I’d wait it out through the summer to see if there’s any significant growth. If not by July or August, you’ll have your answer.
This is so helpful! Any news about how Huisache are doing? I have a huge one that was about to bloom when the freeze hit, and so far, no signs of life. I’ll be so sad if this beauty doesn’t pull through!
I don’t grow it myself, but all the reports I’m hearing about them are not good. 🙁 I hope they can recover as temps warm up. I’d give it through midsummer at least before deciding whether to take it out or not. Some trees are just very slow to show signs of life after that epic freeze.
Thank you so much, Pam. I’ll keep crossing my fingers through the summer!
We live in Georgetown, TX, & are trying to decide if our Texas Ash tree is dead after the long freeze. It had started to leaf out in early February, then came the freeze & snow. The tree is 2 1/2 yrs. old, but was a large sized tree when it was planted by a tree nursery. It lost the first new leaves, & now has started getting leaves again, but mostly in the bottom 1/3 of the tree, & not that many. The top part of the tree is totally bare. Is it possible for it to recover & become a full-leafed tree again? Thanks for any advice you could give us!
Marilyn, from what I’ve read, the ash trees got hit particularly hard. But your tree is definitely not dead because it’s putting out new leaves! I suggest giving it TLC this summer and waiting to see if it can return to full health. I see no reason to pull it out when it’s trying to make a comeback, even if it looks a little scraggly right now. We just got a nice, deep rain, which should help all our plants. Other things you can do: Give it a drink of compost tea once a month or spread 1/2-inch to an inch of compost around the root zone this month (keep soil, compost, and mulch pulled away from the trunk itself). Give it a good, soaking drink once a week during the summer if it hasn’t rained. Fingers crossed it’s looking better by this fall!
And if it’s not looking healthy by this fall, October is a much better time to replant than right now, as we’re heading into the hot summer months.
I could not find any remarks about the Arizona Ash. I have two huge trees I planted about 33 years ago and I still don’t have any new leaves. I am afraid I am going to have to cut them down.
Jimmy, look up Neil Sperry’s posts on Facebook about ash trees. Here’s one: https://www.facebook.com/NeilSperryTexas/posts/10165675655115427. I’m sorry about your trees.
Has anyone grown a Palo Verde Tree in Dallas? I love them but have only seen them in one place in Dallas. These ones are very established/old trees..they were bald and brown after the freeze but are jnow just starting to leaf out. Thanks
One of our live oak trees bent over to the ground (planted Nov 2020, 35 gal). It is standing back up and has leafed out but just has developed a vertical crack in the trunk, about 5 inches long. I’m not sure what to do for it, poor thing! Is there something I should do to keep bugs out, or support the crack – pull it back together? put a post alongside?
Tricia, you should consult with an arborist about your injured tree. I’m sorry it got damaged so badly.
Hi Pam, I’m in Houston and have a grapefruit tree, I believe a Ruby Red. It was about 6 feet tall and full of branches and it produced very well for several years. Then the freeze hit. It’s now coming back from the root on the side. It’s a nice, big, green branch. It’s coming out of the side of the bottom of the trunk, but it is growing upward nicely. I’d actually like to relocate the tree. Can I move the tree? Will the new shoot be stable on the old root? Any advice you can give is very much appreciated.
I’m sorry, but I really have no expertise in fruit trees. Perhaps a local nursery specializing in fruit trees, or your Houston-area master gardeners association, could give you good info?
Our son’s Palo Verde is brown and no signs of life. It was not in a protected area. He is seeking advice. Should we wait longer…try pruning or write it off?
He can go ahead and remove it now. I think it’s unlikely to revive at this point.