So? How did this plant variety do over the winter? Will it be going out again this summer? One year, after a light frost, my cordylines (2 - regular green) still looked good, so I thought I'll try to keep over the winter - maybe I'll have a HUGE spike to plant out next spring with my geraniums. Everyone here calls these plants 'spikes', they are sold in masses in the spring, in teeny 2" pots, the plants have only 4-7 leaves, and that's what mine had started out as. But it grew well, so after this frost, I semi-carefully dug it out of the pot, it had lots of long roots, which I trimmed off so I could fit it into a 1 gallon nursery pot to bring indoors. With all the root pruning, and I only had to trim back a few older leaves that were dying, I did not lose any growth after bringing it in. It continued to grow over the winter, so much so that it's diameter was 4 feet, and I could hardly wait to take it back outside 'cause it was taking up valuable living space. It was placed in a large 6 foot SW facing window, and got good sun. I watered it as little as possible, no fertilizer until late in February. In the spring, the special treatment I had to give it was that I fashioned a 'cast' out of paper, sort of like a narrow toilet paper tube, to put around the newer center leaves, since we get strong winds in the spring, and the new growth would not be strong enough to handle that. After I couple of weeks outside I could remove his paper cast (there would have been new outdoor leaves coming up) and he grew happily, though this big cordyline did not leave a whole lot of room for my flowers! But he looked majestic beginning of June, whereas most years they look that way come the end of August. The other thing is that I would have originally paid $1 for him when he was little, for the size I stuck out the following year, those ones ran at $10 in the local nurseries, and they still weren't near as big as mine! Since I would never fork out that kind of moola for a 'spike', it was satisfying to me that I could have a big one at the cost of reusing a recycled nursery pot, and some potting soil - cheap....kioni.

'Red Star' Cordyline is hardy to zone 9- definitely provide winter protection there in your zone.

Get it out of the full sun and into partial shade. Cordylines do best with sun in the morning or afternoon, but not all day long. They do tend to drop leaves and get leggy, so don't fret that.

Most Cordylines, with the possible exception of 'Festival Grass', will eventually develop at least a thin trunk. Try feeding them a little extra nitrogen to encourage basal offshoots. Even if it can't be like an ornamental grass, you may be able to make it bushy enough to hide the trunks. Good luck! : )