I have an orchid tree; it's not a Hong Kong, because mine gets seed pods, where I believe the Hong Kong does not. Anyway, my tree drops virtually all its leaves this time of year. First it flowers and then the flowers and the seed pods fall off. Starting in another few weeks the new leaves will start to come out.

I guess that is what is happening to your trees. The leaves will fall out, only to be replaced by new ones fairly soon. I find that my tree looks best (when it isn't flowering) in August after all the new leaves have finally filled out and new growth has pretty much finished also.

I think you can prune them pretty much any time. These trees will drop a lot of limbs as they grow. My tree is huge--perhaps fifty feet high and wide. Not sure how big the Hong Kong variety gets.

Thank you! How do you prune your tree? (Or have you not had to ever, or maybe can't remember since it's been a while?)

My daughter lives on Siesta Key in Sarasota. She had three Hong Kongs. They started looking bad and her husband decided to cut them down. These trees were about 12 ft in full sun.

He cut them to the ground three years ago. Never got around to digging up the roots. They grew back larger than they originally were. No more yellow leaves and look magnificent. Thick and tall.

My daughter and family do not live year round in this house. Its their vacation house. They come during school vacations. So the cut down trees were not observed for 5 months. When they came back they were so healthy looking. Had grown back.

They left them and I'm always amazed when I go over there, how beautiful they are now with no care nor watering. Thick, full of flowers. No yellow leaves.

Maybe the trick is to cut them down if they start looking funky.

Jane

These trees are deciduous. It's possible that the trees that were cut down were dormant and then they just grew back. One doesn't know what was going on with your daughter's trees. You might ask them, Jane, what time of year it was when they cut down the trees.

The trees will drop their leaves pretty much at the same time every year. Right now my tree has very little green on it. It is covered by seed pods and dying leaves. Pretty soon the seed pods will drop off and new growth will begin.

That said, I believe you can prune them almost any time to get the shape that one wants.

Tom is completely right. They put so much effort into the flowering and if not a true Hong Kong, seeding. Afterwards they drop all their leaves and lush new growth appears.

They can be trimmed anytime, but certainly after the main bloom is over is best. I have 1 that I keep in a tree shape as a single trunk, and 2 that I allow to sucker. all of them are beautiful, but the tree is definitely looking scrubbier than the bushes. It also had more blossoms, where as the bushes are flowering longer. When you trim the trees that signals the plant to put on more growth - so its all totally normal.

As for how to trim it - if you want a tree structure you'll need to stay on top of taking the new vegetative growth off the trunk, keeping it to a single trunk, and getting rid of crossover growth. They really don't NEED trimmed - but they do look good that way. :-)

That's what happened to my daughters trees, they are shrubs now but very large. Full of blooms. Before getting cut back they always looked sickly, struggling. I tried fertilizer and watering when I went there. Nothing worked, thus he decided to get rid of them.

Thank goodness he never removed the roots. Maybe the shock did it!

Jane

When I pruned the tree, I didn't cut down to the collar except for the branches that were crossing over and rubbing the other branches. The other branches that I cut, I cut maybe half-way down the branch on the other side of a "bud" (I don't know if this is correct terminology).

As far as cutting the trees completely down, I don't think that my heart or the trees could take that right now! The trees have both been recently planted (within the year), so I know that their roots wouldn't be mature enough. One of the trees, I planted about 2 months ago--when can I start pruning that tree?

Thanks all for the responses!

I would wait to prune the young tree until it is firmly rooted, which it should be by the end of summer. Any green growth encourages the tree to throw down more roots to support it. Normally, this would be a good time to prune since new growth hasn't started, but If you can wait for a while it will probably help the tree to establish itself.

That said, I don't think you would major harm to the tree to prune it now. It just might not be the optimum time.

I've been watching this thread with great interest. I started (NOT Hong Kong) orchid trees from seeds back in 2013. Four years later, I have two seven-foot saplings with very slender trunks. I have never pruned them. One has a single trunk; the other has a double trunk. Mine have white blooms and I believe them to be White Orchid-Tree, Bauhinia aculeata. which is a more cold-hardy variety and maybe why I've been successful with them in Jacksonville (!).

Momo V, mine lost all of their leaves during the fall and winter. They were bare of leaves all winter and early spring but were covered with many brown seed pods. Both trees started to both leaf out and bloom in the past two weeks. Some seed pods still hang on the branches but many have dropped.

I haven't experienced any of the yellowing of leaves but that may be coming (?) because Orlando is several weeks ahead of Jacksonville. But you said those were old/mature leaves? I don't have any of those left - my trees were bare all winter.

I'm learning how and when to prune these and appreciate all of the tips. Still deciding if I will... and when. I'm going to enjoy the bloom that is about to happen first. I will take some photos today. Love these. What a great result from seeds - which I'm usually no good at. :)

Carol in Jacksonville

Hi, Carol! Yes...it's the mature leaves that are yellow and falling off. I'm still holding my breath so see the outcome. I have one lone flower on the older tree now (the one that I pruned). Congrats on your reseeding! That's gotta feel great! I can't offer any help for pruning as I'm not entirely sure that I'm doing it correctly.

Hong Kong orchid tree looses it's old leaves before sprouting new ones. That's its nature. Cutting it back might force it to produce new growth sooner then it would have otherwise but that may not be a good thing if its not yet getting enough moisture to support the new growth.

Momo, one suggestion that I have heard repeatedly before is that one prunes just above nodes. it is from these nodes that new growth will come from. There are ways to direct the new growth in the direction that you want. You will need to research this a bit.

On the larger tree you might consider using a sealer on the pruned area. Trees normally heal themselves, but if there is a lot of insect activity around they may attack the tree.

On the older tree now is probably a good time to prune. When the new growth starts it will green up in a hurry.

Thank you so much! That is exactly where I pruned, so I am ecstatic to hear this. The cuts look pretty well sealed at this point, so I'm just going to have to wait and see!

I live in Delray Beach, and had a Hong Kong Orchard tree planted about a year ago. Recently I noticed more and more leaves disappearing. I took a photo up close, and went to the Native Nursery. Well low and behold, in the photo were 2--Sri Lanka Weevils!!! They have invaded Florida, and are eating their way through!!! They have eaten my beautiful Hong Kong Orchard and Mahogany trees! If you google them, you will see that there are around 100 different trees and plants that they eat. They have no known predictors, nor any insecticide that will kill them! Even citrus trees are on the list! I'm looking now to replace those trees that blocked the road that's way behind me, but that were pretty to look at. Would anyone have any ideas for noninvasive trees, which are near my butterfly garden? Ficus is also on that list!! Thanks!!

Oh, NO! Those little weevils are so obnoxious! I think that there are insecticides that do work, but they have to be applied at intervals along with a root insecticide (so two different types) so that they get the different life cycles. I still need to research these guys a little more.

Hello, I have 10 of these baby purple orchid trees (not Hong Kong) that I grew from seeds in Houston. They are almost 2 feet tall now. Wondering if I should trim them and, if so, how? Didn't stake them and they are growing nicely so far. Any advice? Perhaps I need to start a new thread? Sorry.... newbie

Dayna

Hey, Dayna, welcome to the forum.

Probably the best time to prune these trees is in the late spring or early summer, right after they finish flowering.

Yours are possibly too young to flower, so, you can prune them pretty much any time if you see something you really don't like.

Hi Dayna, welcome! I also grew mine from seed. I could swear the parent plants were pink but both of mine bloom white, which is just fine with me. I love the white blooms and in a busy garden full of colors, white gives some "relief" to the eye. It will be interesting to see what color you get!

Carol in Jacksonville

Momo V,

I don't know how I missed this before. I was rereading the White Orchid Tree document from UF IFAS/EDIS linked above and there it is, the last sentence of the first paragraph:

Growth in alkaline soil is usually fine, but the leaves appear yellow between the veins.

Isn't that a pretty-good description of the leaves on your plant: "yellow between the [green] veins"?

You said you live in the downtown area of Orlando. Is your tree planted near sidewalks or a building (with a concrete foundation)? It could be alkaline soil that is the problem. What do you think?

Carol in Jacksonville

Thank you tom123 and lovetheyard! Excited to see how they do this summer.

Dayna, keep us posted on how yours is doing. I'm learning, too. These are relatively new and young plants for me (since they were started from seed). We love new faces on the forum!

Carol

We just planted our vey first sappling; (HK Orchid tree) this spring and notice shes indeed growing but leaning over and appears so fragile Any ideas what more we could do? Brenda Zone 10 Stuart Fl