I have two bottlebrush bushes/trees in my front yard. Neither have fully recovered from the last cold-snap that we had earlier in the year.

The larger and previously healthier/prettier of the two is completely brown. The only green leaves are on new shoots coming out of the ground at the base of the tree.

The second one (which is more of a bush) does have some green leaves on the existing branches, but most of the leaves are brown and dead.

I just got a letter from my HOA saying I have 15 days to get rid of the dead foliage. What should I do? Take the tree-like one out completely and prune the bush of everything but the (few) green leaves that it has? Take them both out? I'm afraid if I prune the one that does have some green leaves, it will look worse than what is there now (because it's going to be pretty puny and asymmetrical if I remove the dead leaves). Also, there is new growth among the dead leaves, so how do I know what to prune?

And I thought bottlebrush were supposed to be hearty plants. I don't really understand why mine have died (especially since a couple of years ago we had a spring freeze that literally left icicles hanging from them and they survived that). Several of my neighbors have various sized bushes and trees, and I'm the only one whose died.

A nursery expert here in San Antonio says the hard freeze we had was tough on even cold hardy trees due to the fact it was so warm before the freeze and it got cold very fast.

Our neighbor lost their bottle brush. I lost two olive trees.

Interesting. I've seen more dead shrubs and plants after this winter and wondered why.

Here is what's happening with all the bottlebrushes in the Houston area. Ones of mine was not affected at all and I nearly lost another one.

http://ktrh.iheart.com/onair/gardenline-with-randy-lemmon-25172/the-answer-is-phytopthora-15930705/

munch74 said:

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Here is what's happening with all the bottlebrushes in the Houston area. Ones of mine was not affected at all and I nearly lost another one.

http://ktrh.iheart.com/onair/gardenline-with-randy-lemmon-25172/the-answer-is-phytopthora-15930705/

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Thanks so much! Any idea how to know if one is salvageable or not? I'm assuming if there are new sprouts at the base, I may have a chance, but one of the existing bushes is completely brown.

Mine was mostly brown. I have gone through two treatments of the Agra Phos and then beneficial bacteria (EM-1) a week later. I spaced the treatments by a month or so. Most of the large trunks are dead, but it seems to be coming back.

munch74 said:

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Mine was mostly brown. I have gone through two treatments of the Agra Phos and then beneficial bacteria (EM-1) a week later. I spaced the treatments by a month or so. Most of the large trunks are dead, but it seems to be coming back.

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Thanks for the reply. Sounds like even if the one that's worse off is salvageable, it's not going to happen in two weeks, which is how long the HOA has given me to resolve this issue. I don't think they'd approve of a bunch of sticks with no leaves sticking out of the ground, either, so one of these may be a complete loss.

I lost all of mine in Spring. They seemed to be coming back very slowly, but it was taking too long, so I just decided to replace them all. Happy I did because the new ones have been growing rapidly for the past couple of months.

Thanks for all of the helpful replies! My yard guy took out the tree that was completely brown and pruned the one that still has some green. That bush doesn't look as bad as I thought it would (but the bed as a whole is pretty sad). Tomorrow he is goog to treat the bed with the fungicide, and at some point I will ask him to plant a new one!

In spring TX. Cold freeze have my bottle brushes brown throughout my cutting back.

I think I'll take them almost to the ground and see if they come back.
Still firmly in the ground.


Am I wasting my time?

Wait and see. Have a large bottlebrush and pray we didn't lose it.

I had a large bottlebrush plants freeze about 4-5 years ago. Cut it back to the ground and came back with new shoots. Was about 8-10 ft tall with this latest cold weather so I plan on cutting it back again.