Goldenrain Tree damage

15 years ago

I planted this sapling last fall and it had come back nice and was putting out new growth near the top. About two weeks or so our granddaughter opened our gate one day and I didn't notice it. Well, evidently some little vandals came back there and stripped every bit of new growth off of it, including a couple that were going to be branches. The new growth was from near the top to about 8 inches down. The tree itself is a little over 4' tall, about 3/4" six" up from the ground.

I noticed a couple of days ago that some more new growth is reappearing below the damaged area. There are some other hard/woody buds in the damaged area that haven't shown any signs of emerging but I'm hopeful.

Should I just leave it be and see how it turns out, and if no new growth emerges from the damaged area, should I still leave it be? I guess basically what I'm just wondering is if it didn't develop new growth near the top how it would affect its development.

The red circles in the picture indicate where the sprouts were pulled off, the green indicate new growth. There's more beneath the bottom edge of the picture as well. You can also see some of the other places where it has what appear to be buds but haven't emerged as of yet.

This tree was to replace the one we have that's been declining the last couple of years. It has sentimental value because my stepdaughter planted it when she was little around 25 years ago and my wife always loved it. They're not the easiest trees to find in our area. I've only seen two other in this entire town and I've only seen three in the last couple of years between several nurseries in our area and the big box stores. This particular one came form Lowes.

I have some smaller saplings around our yard from the original, but they always seem to prosper in places where it's difficult to transplant them from, such as the base of a shrub, by our stoop in front, next to the base of our arbor and so on. I tried propagating one myself but didn't have much luck, even following directions I found on how to do it. I guess it's not my forte'.

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Comments (7)

ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
15 years ago
ignore it.. keep it properly watered.. and give it a month or so ...

at that point.. repost a pic ...

if growth is explosive.. you may want.. at that time to remove some of the new growth .... e.g. if 4 new sprouts.. sprout to replace one broken one... you may want to get rid of a few ....

normally ... no pruning on new trees for a few years.. more leaves.. means more food .. means more root gorwth and faster establishment ...

but with this insult .... the trees response may require some action otherwise not suggested ...

and walk the bugger by it every day and remind them of the horror inflicted ... lol ....

never fert

i give you ONLY a 99% chance of recovering from the injury ... if it dies.. it wasnt because of this...

ken
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davek913
Original Author
15 years ago
Thanks Ken. I probably wouldn't be as bothered by it if it weren't for the fact that they're hard to find around here.

The new shoots I circled are starting to leaf out and there's another bud emerging near one of the broken spots so I'm hopeful.

I actually found out who did it Sunday. One of these smart, um, aleck teens from the street behind us walked by trying to act cool with his little buddies and said "How's that stick in your backyard doing?" I asked him a question in a quite colorful manner to which he replied, "Yeah it was me you old @*%#&" Two of my neighbors heard him say it.

He didn't know that I knew his father, so I went over to see them both later. I brought them back and said "See that? $20 if it dies and I'll have him charged with trespassing and vandalism. See that plant there? $75 if something happens to it, same charges. That one over there? $35. Over there? $20 Get the picture?"

While they were walking away I saw his father give him a little smack on the back of his head.
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slr8
15 years ago
I found your story because I am think of buying my mom a Goldenchain tree. I was astonished to hear what those teenagers did to your tree and for what? And then to call you a name! I hope the dad punishes him and makes him replace it. There are very few of those trees seen around here too. There is one downtown at a local bank which was also vandalized (not to your extent but was split down the centre) and it didn't flower for a while. But last year and this year, the blooms are back fully. What a shame. Give it time and see what it does. I agree with Ken in that. I didn't get a chance to see the picture, not showing on my computer, but the description was a horrific one. Good luck...hope you can find another.
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davek913
Original Author
15 years ago
Thank you slr8. It didn't look as though his father was terribly pleased with him so maybe this will serve as a lesson for him. When he was walking by it looked as though he was pretty concerned about looking cool for his friends, but he was very humble when confronted with his father there.

For the record, ours isn't a Golden Chain Tree, it's a Golden Rain Tree. If you do a Google image search, you can see the difference. The GCT's flowers are more conspicuous than those of the GRT and the leaf structure differs. Still love ours though. The little "lanterns" that emerge from the flowers are neat to look at as they emerge from green pods to the copper that they become. The little fellows do self propagate readily as well. Ours is located about 15 feet from our house and I can't tell you how many hundreds of little seedlings I've removed from the bed by the house.

I will indeed wait and see as they can be tough trees. The original went through much in the years before I met my wife and has really hung in there despite declining the last two years.
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slr8
15 years ago
Oh, a Goldenrain Tree...I have never heard of one. I did a search and found it on the internet and what an amazing tree! I have never seen one around here anywhere. I sure hope it grows well...is there growth coming in the top yet? What a little punk, eh? Which is not the word I want to use but it will do. Oh, is it bad to put the word "eh" there??? Yes, I am Canadian. hmmm....
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davek913
Original Author
15 years ago
Slr8, it does have new growth on it although the top ten inches or so where everything was broken off hasn't put any forth. They can be very pretty trees but they do set seedlings all over the place. One year I pulled well over fifty from the bed by our foundation and that had mulch and landscape fabric in it. They came up between the mulch and the fabric. I get my fair share in front of the house as well.

I don't know how they would fare in Canada so that could be why you've never heard of one. They're kind of borderline for zone 5. We don't get much of the extreme low end of the temperature range here so that probably helps.

The boy and his father came back again later and apologized. His father was upset over the fact that he had the nerve to go into someone else's backyard like that. He grounded him for two weeks and took away his cell phone and computer privileges for that period as well.
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krazyaroider
15 years ago
GCT is a member of the Legume family.
They are easy to start from seed, IF you soak the seed in hot water and let sit for 24 hours. I have a GCT that was started from seed last year. The seed may have delayed dormancy as one popped up this year.
I purchased the seed from J. L. Hudson, Seedman, a mail order firm in California. It is cheaper this way and you get a lot of seed for the $$!
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Goldenrain Tree damage

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ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5

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Goldenrain Tree damage

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ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5

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