Im in zone 7, and my chinese pistache has already leafed out. Theres another fellow down the street that has one as well, and his didnt leaf out as soon as mine did. However his doesnt get full sun like mine. I think this does have an effect. Does yours get full sun?

I would expect you being in zone 9, it should have leafed out by now. You have a longer growing season. Is the tree planted to deep?

Sounds as though you are very near the west coast in a maritime climate. Assuming that is true, then you are probable just now be beginning to warm up. These trees like warm weather, so it is certainly conceivable that they needed it to be warmer. However, that very well may not be the case either. Our Pistache here is growing, but we also have had 70-85 degree weather.

Arktrees

Dan's default: improperly planted. Dan's default #2: pix help.

Scratch bark of twigs. Green underneath is a good sign.

Dan

Ugh, I think that the lack of heat may be the problem. Daytime highs have mostly been in the high 50s or low 60s, typical for this time of year around these parts. I sure wish I knew that pistache needs more heat than other trees, before I planted them. Of course, maybe there's something else going on.

Dan, some pix linked below. It's probably planted a hair deeper than ideal, as you can't see the top of the root ball ... but it's not more than an inch down.

Here is a link that might be useful: My chinese pistache

What happened to it!?!? Who butchered it? Is that a power line just above this tree that can grow 50' tall?

I would be concerned about the planting depth, but at least it "looks" to be coming out in a normal fashion now. Are there any others that you are aware in the area? They might give you a better gauge on the possible heat thing. As for height, most here are not that large, maybe 25', but then again, none are that old either. They are pretty recent for my area.

Arktrees

Given the nature of the problem, what Mc510 has said, and the other factors that can be seen in the photos, the planting depth seems irrelevant to the problem(s) to me.

Sheesh. The butchery and completely wrong tree in that place are much more the issues than anything else. Ouch. I'm certain that your town has a street tree list for under power lines. I'm also willing to wager that if it has been updated in the last 20 years, Pistacia is not on the list for approved under power lines.

I do miss Dodonaea though and wish I could grow it here.

Dan

Well, believe it or not, I selected pistache off of the city's street trees list, and the city approved it for my location. They consider it a "medium" sized tree ... it's possible that they don't know what they're doing, or perhaps it stays fairly small in this climate when planted in the inhospitable parkway environment.

I've found a few other pistache around here; it appears that the older, larger, more established ones are leafing out more rapidly, and the smaller and younger ones look more like mine. So hopefully mine will get better with age.

The butchery is a combination of the nursery/grower, which created a pom-pom of scrawny branches, and my attempt to restore a central leader. I would have bought better looking specimens to start with, but they all looked like that.

Correction, I have NOT found any nicely-leafed, well-established pistache around here; I was looking at something with a similar leaf but that is NOT pistache. I have found a few adolescent pistache, maybe 5 to 10 years old, that look like they're maybe 3 weeks ahead of mine. Which is still pretty unsatisfactory for this time of year.

Well, they missed it. Put the approval letter and copies with your house and mortgage docs in case Forestry comes along later and notices the mistake and gets grumpy.

That tree looks like a cull. There are twice as many branches at the top as there should be, when you prune them in a few years you'll have the extra challenge of choosing because of the proximity to the pole - branches rubbing are entry points for pathogens. These trees have no central leader. The late leaf-out is likely due to transplant shock and butchering, maybe that winter too. IME in Sacto. those trees needed firm staking for the first couple years as they are usu top-heavy for the trunk, altho that poor thing may not be. Watch and stake if it flops.

Good luck. Lots of challenges ahead.

Dan

Once the soil and air temperatures reach a certain level trees will come out of dormancy. However, it can vary from tree to tree even within the same cultivar.
The Keith Davey's cultivar of the Chinese Pistache is not as cold hardy as the traditional Pistacia chinensis; therefore, it would probably take it longer for it to break dormancy.
My traditional Chinese Pistache tree broke dormancy this year in late March, due to unusually high temps and a very mild winter. Last year the Chinese Pistache trees here didn't break dormancy until early May.
Just to give you any idea of how the temperature can affect dormancy and seed germination: usually crab grass does not sprout until late May or early June in SC Kansas. Crab grass seed in my area was already sprouting in late March.
Don't get worried or do something drastic, just wait, it will eventually break dormancy.

Chinese pistache is all over our neighborhood and none have leafed out yet. They are medium sized trees here - generally have no problem with power lines. mc510 I am guessing you are East Bay due to your 'handle' - you should be just fine. I'm in Sonoma, nice to meet another 9b. There aren't many of us on this forum!

Hi, I live near Houston and my Chinese Pistache is always the last to get leaves, almost up to May, but I don't mind because it is a beautiful tree with beautiful branches as it gets older. It is now considered a Texas Superstar.

Our Chinese Pistache is 5 years old. It looked the best it has last summer and now it's almost May and we have very, very few buds. It looks like we had buds earlier and they're now brown. It's been a colder spring and wet winter. We are in zone 8. I sure hate to think we've lost this beautiful tree?

Chinese Pistache trees leaf out late. Mine has lots of catkins, which are now falling off, so the leaves should pushing out before long.

I too had beautiful leaves last summer and fall but this year my Chinese Pistache seems to be taking it's sweet time blooming. I'm in Las Vegas, NV and its mid April now. I have read on this page that others have waited till May so I do feel better. My tree is 3 years old now.

So, mine usually gets leaves close to May here in Houston, but because of the deep freeze (over 100 year), it got leaves at the end of March. I guess the cold shocked it into leafing out early.

This year mine started breaking leaf buds in early april, and by mid-april they're about 15% leafed out.

Just spotted this thread after having some concern about my 25+ year old tree. It always is the latest to leaf out in my neighborhood (Orange County, CA) but this year seems particularly late. June 1 and still barely showing. I did cut the tree back substantially before the last growing season. You can see how much new growth occurred last year in the photo. I've not touched the tree in 18 months. I really have no clue on how to best take care of this tree but it has put up with me for 25 years and always looks beautiful (except we miss the fall colors because our local Santa Ana winds blow the leafs off in October/November). It has been relatively cool this Spring.

Um, who pruned your tree? No offense but it looks like the Womping Willow Tree from the Harry Potter movie.

No offense taken - that was my handiwork :). 2 years ago I cut it back heavily since it was overgrown. The next season it grew back vigorously. I didn't prune this fall and I wonder if that has something to do with the late growth.

pic very far away .. if all there is is some growth from the trunk proper ... then we can probably assume everything above is dead .. but you could give it another month .. if it wont drive you crazy looking at it ...

yes .... you can probably retain is back to one trunk ... but im not sure i would want that project out in front of my castle ... in which case.. remove it ...

unless of course its a grafted tree.. and whats coming from the trunk is not the same tree ...

when all is said and done.. you pruned it.. most likely ... because its too big a tree for its location .. and if thats the fact.. then why bother regrowing a tree that you know is too big for that spot ...

with no insult to the root mass .. presumably... it will probably regrow rather quickly .. since it has a root mass sufficient to what is dead ...

personally.. i would remove it ...

and if you want to replant.. you might be better off with a shrub in the shape of a tree rather than a tree ... its all about future potential... those trees have a proclivity to never stop growing... where a shrub usually does ... relatively speaking ...

ken

ps: if you decide to plant a new tree ... lawn irrigation is not the proper way to water a new transplant ...

https://sites.google.com/site/tnarboretum/Home/planting-a-tree-or-shrub

My Chinese Pistache tree was fully leafed out by May 15th. The only complaint I have about it, is that the foliage doesn't turn those beautiful shades of yellow, orange, and red like you see in all the photos. None of the Chinese Pistache trees in my area seem to display the bold fall colors that made this species of tree so famous. Perhaps it's more of an arid climate type of tree. Despite that little bump in the road, it's still a good tree.

Ken - thanks for the input. My tree has three trunks, which is something we planned on 26 years ago when planted because we get some very high (and local) Santa Ana winds. My tree is very much alive, and is starting to show a lot of growth. But your point about the tree being too big for the location is probably correct. I've had to cut it back over the years because it grows so big and fast. We planted the tree from a 36" box over 26 years ago and we find ourselves pulling trees out that are just too large for our modest yard. Might be time for this one to go...

Tim - where I'm at in inland Orange County I do get fantastic colors on my tree, but when the winds come in October they usually knock them off before they go full color. We've had a few good years.

Here's the latest photo of my Chinese Pistache tree. I think it's grown quite a bit this summer.