Hong Kong Orchid tree needs help

16 years ago

I have a Hong Kong Orchid tree that is about 4 years old and I've noticed it does not seem to be as happy and healthy as other trees of the same species that I see around, even those planted in parking lots that probably don't get a lot of care. My leaves are sparse and yellowing and the blossoms this year were scanty and small. The soil in my yard isn't the greatest, but it's probably not a lot worse than the soil in a lot of other areas near here where the trees seem to be doing a lot better.

I would appreciate knowing what I can do to help this tree get greener and leafier and produce more blossoms next year. The obvious answer is "fertilize" but I'd like more specific info about what kind of fertilizer or amendments I should use and when I should apply them. I've used organic all purpose fertilizer before. Once it finishes flowering in a few weeks I'll trim it back and that would probably be a good time to start applying whatever I need to in order to make the tree healthier. Thanks in advance for any tips.

Featured Answer

treefrog_fl

16 years ago

Ricky's advice is right on the mark. Cut it back hard now. You'll be amazed at the quality of the new growth.
Fertilize in spring and fall.
Trim heavily after the flowers go.

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Comments (17)

fawnridge (Ricky)
16 years ago
Trim it back hard, once the flowers have fallen, and fertilize with any good quality palm fertilizer - 12-6-8 from Bushel Stop is a good choice.

Fertilize now (March) and again in late June and once more in October. Use a cup of fertilizer for each inch of trunk at chest height, spreading the food out to the edges of the crown and no closer than one foot to the trunk.
susieq07
16 years ago
I have 2 Hong Cong Orchid trees one is sickly one is not, I do not use palm food on these trees but rather acid loving plant food as is reccomended,(same used for azelia's or hybiscus) also in my research it said to feed in Oct. before blooming no other time mentioned?? and also to give them something for the yellowing, I use magnesium, we have no idea why one of our trees is on the scrawney side, we also give them systemic, as they were attacked when first planted, by insects, munching the leaves. Ours were planted by a nursery, I will be very interested to see if you find a cure?
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There are a lot of half-truths in this thread, and some plain misinformation sprinkled in. First, the idea that certain fertilizer types promote root growth is a fallacy. If anything, fertilizing a new transplant, or one that has been in its permanent home for just a year or two or three, will actually retard root system expansion. One way to think of this is that the roots are "looking" for nutrients, so a heavy-handed approach where too much of these nutrients are placed in the root zone actually causes less growth, not more. Then, there's the staking of young plants: Tree saplings develop something called reaction wood in response to being buffeted by the wind. Stake it tightly to some rod or stick and you've eliminated the opportunity for this to happen. Doesn't mean no stakes ever, but especially any items tied tightly so the trunk can't move around are to be avoided...and anything used must come off after the first year. Then there's the idea that somehow by pruning, we can mold the plant into a shape it's not otherwise genetically programmed to adopt. While there's a dab of truth in this one, it is the wrong road to take. Somebody up above at least stated the obvious-that young plants need all the foliage they can have to produce their food via photosynthesis. And that same process causes chemicals called auxins, developed in growing shoot tips, to send signals to the roots to grow. Constantly messing with this process just confuses things. Very basically stated, if you want a tree that produces mostly an upright growth habit, select a species or cultivar of a species which is genetically programmed to grow in that fashion. Trying to beat a horse into an elephant is bound to cause frustration, and the same applies here in the plant world. Now this is not at all to say one should never prune their trees. I myself have pruned perhaps a half-million plants in my time! But there are proper techniques here, just as one wouldn't try to carve a turkey without a clue what they are doing. Very generally, a moderate program of "raising up", which simply means removing lower branches can be done, but gradually please. If one is impatient and tries to do this all at once, the very likely response by that plant is to sucker like mad. Basically, when plant parts are removed, the plant responds by trying to reestablish those plant parts. So go ahead and take all kinds of branches off your tree....and the tree will simply start a bunch of new branches. We call those new branches suckers, and many of them will grow right straight up through the tree canopy, rubbing against other more well-placed branches, or throwing the crown balance off, or competing with the main leader. These are all undesirable outcomes. Pruning trees is not simpleton stuff. Why anyone would undertake it without knowing what they're doing is beyond me, except for the monkey see-monkey do factor. Let's not do our gardening by that method! +oM
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dsstroud, unfortunately, they are a deciduous tree and very messy. They will also get HUGE if you let them. You can't change the nature of the tree, so either change your attitude or chop it down. Not being smart, just that's your only choice. That reminds me of a story of when I was working at a garden center. A woman called and said that the tree we had sold her was dead. My boss went out and it was indeed leafless, but then, all Jacarandas are leafless in the winter. He tried to explain to her that it was deciduous and would come back out and bloom in the spring, but she was all upset and made him dig it up, so he brought it back, cleaned up the roots, stuck it into another pot, and resold it. Then there was the woman who walked in and said she wanted a bush that bloomed all year, only got 4 feet tall and never had to be pruned. I told her the silk flower and plant store was about 3 miles down the road. She didn't like things that grew out of control, and said very haughtily that she refused to prune anything. I told her that this is Florida, everything grows out of control here, and she needed to just buy what she liked and hire a gardener.
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As a landscape professional and an ISA Certified Arborist I will provide my best guess and provide some feedback. We have these trees here in Hawaii and I see the yellowing out "Bleaching" often. A lot of that has to do with nutrients. It very well could be the natural cycle of leaf drop and new emergence of juvenile leaves, however... We as homeowners tend to just plant the trees and give it some water and kind of let the trees go on their own. We expect the trees to give us pretty flowers, fruit, and shade and we typically don't give back. All living things have nutrient requirements and for us we eat food to get those nutrients. Trees however have to get that food supply from the soil, once those nutrients are depleted in the soil or are not available at all because of soil conditions, that's it! The tree now depends on reserve energy and stored nutrients. As new leaves emerge they have a higher photosynthetic requirement therefore the older leaves give up their stored nutrients to feed the younger leaves, thus yellowing out and dropping early. All trees deserve at least 1 deep root feeding annually to replenish depleted nutrients. You may find the the older leaves stick around longer and drop throughout the year as opposed to one big drop. Food for Thought! Thanks for reading my rant. Hope this helps! Hit me up at jay@alohaarborcare.com with questions or comments.
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oldflorida
Original Author
16 years ago
I assume Ricky is fawnridge? Thanks so much for the help. My gardener is going to prune it back hard today and will follow the suggestions for fertilizing with good palm fertilizer.
kamaz
14 years ago
I planted a Hong Kong Orchid tree in mid-April. It lost all of its leaves and bloomed profusely till late May. It then started leafing again, but the leaves are very small and sparse. Any advice or ideas. Thank you.
cajun_spice17_yahoo_com
13 years ago
I moved to Port St Lucie last March and fell in love with the Hong Kong Orchid.........Beautiful. I bought three trees in late Jan and Feb? 2011. I didn't plant them for about a week because i wanted to try to get past anymore flirtations with 32 degrees. I planted them as they started looking rather sickly. The leaves turned yellow and fell off. The blooms stopped and died off. I have some very unattractive trees right now. Can i ask? Will they come back as the temperature starts to get quite warm? Is this normal? I will take any help. I love these trees and I feel awful because i really want them to survive. I take my plants health very seriously.
Thank you
cajun_spice17_yahoo_com
13 years ago
I moved to Port St Lucie last March and fell in love with the Hong Kong Orchid.........Beautiful. I bought three trees in late Jan and Feb? 2011. I didn't plant them for about a week because i wanted to try to get past anymore flirtations with 32 degrees. I planted them as they started looking rather sickly. The leaves turned yellow and fell off. The blooms stopped and died off. I have some very unattractive trees right now. Can i ask? Will they come back as the temperature starts to get quite warm? Is this normal? I will take any help. I love these trees and I feel awful because i really want them to survive. I take my plants health very seriously.
Thank you
azjimbo001_yahoo_com
12 years ago
Our tree was doing great last year and this spring it got alot of new healthy leaves but all of a sudden they are all turning brown and falling off. Help!
rahaulin
11 years ago
I got a Hong Kong Orchid tree in December and in the last 3 weeks the leaves have been turning yellow and falling off. The tree looks sickly and scraggly. I gave it some Osmocote Flower and Vegetable plant food 3 weeks ago. What is wrong with my tree? It is about 15 feet tall. Help. Tks.
grooveboi
11 years ago
It's my experience that these trees are semi-deciduous in the spring (at least in 10b). Usually lose most of the leaves when it warms up. New growth after the rains in early summer.
Groove
bananafan
11 years ago
I agree with the heavy pruning. I have three of them--all planted in the ground. There's one with red flowers. It had a strong and damaged branch close to the middle of the trunk. I sliced half of it down and, the tree kept throwing out new shoots at a fast rate and the leaves all look very green and healthy. I was worried about the other two showing sick looking leaves. The last summer, both had many long and straggly branches that were bordering our driveway. They had a good "hair cut," and since then, they have grown a lot faster than before. One of them which is the smaller sized one still has some sick looking leaves that look like they have been munched on. My guess is that younger tree tend to be a little weaker. I'm planning to clip off all those bad looking branches of leaves and see how things go from there. But, definitely trim it back to encourage new and healthier growth.
morningloree
11 years ago
Hi,
Have Hong Kong Orchid Tree, Orchid Bush, and Orchid Vine. My experience is that they are semi-deciduous in cooler weather and they hate disturbances with root systems. I have gotten some mail order, do not like traveling or being transplanted. There is a tendency towards leaf scorch when under stress, I usually mist the plant and wrap with a plastic trash bag for a few days, helps with leaf scorch. I prune my bush and fertilize all with fertilizer for acid loving plants, needs iron, too. Tend to get chlorotic, I have a spray that provides iron, they like that.
Eric Rogers
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
I live in Gilbert, Arizona and i just planted a hong kong orchid tree this week. I'm looking for some suggestions on care and maintenance. I have a drip line set up with it, however I'm not sure the GPH for it. How much water should be given daily?
User
8 years ago
The rule with any perennial you plant is that it sleeps the first year, creeps the second year and leaps the third years. Trees, especially, just need to be given a chance to get established.
wisconsitom
8 years ago
@ SusieQ: Automatically applying an insecticide-systemic or not-is never a part of good horticulture. Where pesticides are concerned, use should always follow accurate identification of the pest target. Flinging these highly toxic materials into the environment for little to no reason simply cannot be justified. It is almost a certainty that you are impacting organisms far beyond whatever was munching on the foliage whenever that was. And that insect-again identity unknown-is almost surely not present anymore.
china888
7 years ago
last modified: 7 years ago
I brought some seeds back from HK to the UK and have managed to grow one to about 2 ft high. It's a single stem with leaves that close up at night. I would like to know how to care for it as a young plant. I've kept it indoors for a year now and give it rainwater every other day. All advice will be helpful - thank you!
Sillyglue
5 years ago
Our tree is showing kinda green yellowish leaves that are all folded in half. does this mean anything bad? There are many blooms waiting to pop but so far it's only given us 2-3 blooms at a time. It was planted about 2 months ago. Hoping everything is okay! Also, how far from the base of the tree can I plant other plants?

Hong Kong Orchid tree needs help

treefrog_fl

Comments (17)

fawnridge (Ricky)

susieq07

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oldflorida
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rahaulin

grooveboi

bananafan

morningloree

Eric Rogers

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wisconsitom

china888

Sillyglue

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Hong Kong Orchid tree needs help

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