Good Idea MaryMcP, you can also set a fan out to keep the air going so no frost will set.. but a tree 2 years old shouldnt have a problem here,, at that age I'm guessing its around 10 to 13 foot tall. "If" we have a real bad freeze it might loose some of it leafs but it wont die unless we have a LONG Continues Freeze.. and I mean for 48 to 72 hours straight..
you should be Ok

I've been growing some here in pots for a couple or years and can tell you they'll be fine with anything above 28 or so. They'll burn under 32 but they will recover. So if it burns, don't let the burning scare you too much. As long as it's just to the foliage it'll be fine. If it appears that it's to any of the hardwood then I'd be more concerned. And if it get's colder then 28, try and cover as much of the trunk and center of the tree as you can. There's a Royal Poinciana that's been at the U of A since the 1970's and it's gone through some rough winter's, even in it's protected location. After December of 2003 the 25' tree was 70% burnt, but the last I saw of it, it was recover from the trunk.

Lee

Google has a new BETA version of GOOGLE BASE for posting pics, recipes etc. also for selling like on ebay ONLY it's FREE! Check out the pics I just posted and run the slideshow for larger images, enjoy!

Here is a link that might be useful: Royal Poinciana leaf patterns and Coral Gum Eucalyptus blooms

It gave me this error message when I clicked on the link: "Invalid Listing Number
This listing has been removed or is no longer available. Please make sure that you've entered the listing number correctly".

Lee

Now I'm able to see the pictures. Nice pictures. Do you have any of the whole tree?

Thanks,
Lee

more pictures from the yard....I spent a week in Rocky Point mid October and saw unbelievable blooming Royal Poincianas that were about 25' tall!

Here is a link that might be useful: Royal Poinciana

How big was your Royal when you first bought it? Yours is absoulutely beautiful!

Wonderful photos -- very artistic, especially the first group!
Zill

Thank you, the trees leaf pattern was so uniform and artistic all I did was point, shoot and crop, the texture of these leaves is wonderful also, kind of like running your hands across very delicate leather.....the plant was about 2 feet tall in a 5 gallon container when I bought it, I built a tent over it last winter and let Christmas lights burn inside during colder nights. This year I will try to build a shelter and run some spot lights for extra warmth.

Very nice. The one I just bought looks like a stick in comparison! Tera said we're approaching dormancy time and that it should be much happier in time now it's no longer in a pot. I'm just hoping it will sprout branches, etc. in the spring. Yours is very lush and will look even better when taller and more canopy-like.

I recently bought seeds of this tree, and had one sprout yesterday, so figured i needed to start more research on this tree as i'll need to know more for its care. I have read about overwintering trees somewhere on another forum here on gardenweb. It said to wrap a clean unused towel around the trunk, then fill leaves up to the lowest branch, and then water down till all leaves are wetted. I would imagine if you make a chicken-wire bin to hold the leaves in, and then surround in seran wrap that will hold the moisture in more, and also the warm air, as i think that is supposed to decompose over the winter, but i thought it had to be somewhat warm to decompose? anyways i think i might try this, i dont remember where i saw it, but i can search now as im sure its a good method, i read good reviews from it while i was reading.

I know the posts above were a long time ago but this is all still relevant. It is 2023 and I have 5 Royal Poincianas that were grown from seeds. I let them grow in pots for about a year and then transplanted them in the spring. There was one more frost and a couple of the small ones appeared to be completely dead but I kept watering them, just in case and they finally started to bud way after the others. I used dead leaves, oranges that fell from our trees, and mulch when I planted them and they all definitely grew like crazy over the last year. 3 of the bigger ones that did not get the frost damage are now over 7 feet tall. I am expecting them to double in size this summer. 2022-2023 was a particularly cold winter with tons of rainfall and then following with lots of cold days. I am in the horse property area in Gilbert and when it says it is going to be 36, it will likely freeze. So I spent time putting on and taking off cold protection all winter. I would guess that they spent around 20 days total protected. I used some various sized freeze cloth bags with drawstrings at the bottom (Don't buy on Amazon. Home Depot has them on their app for a lot less but you have to order them as they are not in the store). I also ran some mini incandescent christmas lights around the base and on a few, around the trees as well. I took a 4x12 painters drop cloth and wrapped the base of each. It sound tedious, but I got into a rythm and was able to deploy these quickly once I got used to the routine. The reason for the Dunn-Edwards painters drop cloth is that they shed water when it rains and they are extremely heavy so they won't blow away in the wind. This all worked very well and only the very ends of the branches got freeze burned. Thought I would share since I had research a lot and ultimately came up with the best method in my opinion. I did way too much work on these just to let them die over the winter. The plan next winter when they are larger and have thicker trunks is to just use the larger C sized incandescent bulbs wrapped around their trunks and I won't worry about the small branches. As they get larger, you don't have to worry about the cold as much unless there is a sustained freeze for 24 hours or more.

Thanks, Greg. I planted my only seedling last Spring 2023 and covered it with all kinds of bags and duct tape to keep the freeze off my already 8' foot tree. The very top and a large side branch is dead but I'm still waiting to see if anything is still alive. This is now May 3, 2024 and am still hoping for life. I should have placed some type of warmth next to the tree but didn't think of it at the time I was covering it.

What I have found is that once your RP gets to have a trunk that is a little thicker, maybe 3" to 5" around, you need to use the small incandescent (NOT LEDs) Christmas lights (mini size). Get a longer one and just bunch it all up around the base of the tree (maybe 6" up) then wrap it around with the painter's drop cloth like I mentioned before (it will go around like 4 times). Each mini light will not put off hardly any warmth, but together, it will warm it under the drop cloth to keep it around 60 to 70 degrees around the base. (you can tell by reaching your hand inside- big difference, but not enough to burn the tree). Yes, the thinner top branches will freeze if it gets cold but it will all grow back and grow back fast in the spring. If you want to give them a jump start, leave those on all winter and through the last frost and you will see new branches growing off the bottom of the tree (because of the warmth) up to a month or 45 days early, which will give them a jump start on growth and they will get much thicker and taller. Mine started growing in late February this year as opposed to April! This works great. Make sure you grab some outside extension cords and either tape the connections up with tape to waterproof when raining in the winter (after all, after it rains in the winter, that is when it gets very COLD) or get some of those water proof gaskets for outside lighting/cords. That will keep the breaker or GFCI from popping at the wrong time and everything freezing. One other thing- with RPs, do NOT over mulch it. You can put plenty of mulch as long as it is not right against the trunk, otherwise you risk the trunk losing it's bark at the bottom and the tree will die. You can't bury these at the base or they will die. Also do NOT put too much fish emulsion. I used too much on one of mine that looked 100% healthy and it died right after. It sprouted a bunch of times and then the srpouts just died. (I some extra cups of fish emulsion which I had left over and and thought, why not use a couple of cups on this one?- wrong!) If you use exactly the amount on the instructions, you will be fine and then rinse afterwards with water. I have three left from the original lot and they freeze back on top each year but get bigger and bigger each year. Also, in the spring, wait for a month or so to trim the dead stuff off. At that point, you will be able to tell what is actually alive and what needs to be trimmed. If you scrape the bark with your fingernail and it is green underneath, it is still alive. Personally, I just wait and trim above the last new sprouts coming from the branches. That way I don't cut anything off by accident that is still alive. You can also cut the green branches off in sections of about 6 to 8 inches and just stick them into a pot right side up and they will grow new plants. So easy and they are already much thicker and stonger than growing from seed, Give it a try- so easy! Royal Poincianas are like no other tree so they are truly worth the effort. So beautiful with their filtered light and soft, fernlike leaves and incredibly brilliant red/orange beautiful color when in bloom.