Magenta Lilly Pilly: November 2024 update

I’ve been nervous about this one ever since I potted it in August. It was already pretty weak, and maybe should have been given time to recover. But I had agreed to return the pot, so I rushed the planting. Which meant cutting off half the root mass. It looked great at the time.

From August. The old dead trunk and the side branch, combined with the height, was quite striking.

Unfortunately, the tree reacted the way trees do when they lose most of their root mass. Which is to say; most of the leaves promptly died.

For the last three months it’s been looking like this.

It’s a little muddled, so let’s take a close up.

Most leaves are bone dry. Most of the ones with green are heavily pest damaged. The only reason I don’t know if I could count the ‘good’ leaves on my fingers is because I’m not wasting my time counting leaves. But it’s that close.

Fortunately, trees want to live.

The Darling Buds of November. (Wait a minute… May doesn’t make sense anywhere.)

Magenta Lilly Pilly: November 2024 update — In many places.

I’m glad it’s coming back. There’s a risk that much of the side branch mass is dead, and I won’t get any growth on it. I hope it keeps at least the main branches, in order to keep the sense of old tree.

EDIT: Some more photos from later in November, with the regrowth continuing.

There’s a definite flush of green through the tree, but it’s still outweighed by the dead branches.

At some point I’m going to need to prune away things that aren’t growing and maybe shape the whole leaf mass. I think that will be a next year activity; I want to give it plenty of time to recover what it can.