Where do you live? Dallas area?

If they are Texas live oaks (Quercus Fusiformis) they will be fine. If you are in southern Texas south of San Antonio they still should be ok but you might have some die back those would be Quercus Virginiana. The Fusiformis are much much more cold resistant.

The yellowing means absolutley nothing..live oaks lose their leaves as they grow new ones in the spring (instead of fall) you just don't notice them Being replaced. In the winter while live oaks Are green they are also dormant and not growing (Texas Fusiformis version) so I wouldn't worry, unless yoh live in Florida and far south Texas (where they are not dormant but are growing at a snails pace). Bottom line by April all those old yellow leaves will be pushed out by new growth. You will be fine

I am in Southwest Missouri near Branson and have Texas Live Oaks that I planted that have been hit with -11 and this year -7 or -6 depending on the news service. They will bud back in the in another month or 2 and I will have new leaves.

This is my Live Oak covered with ice A few weeks Ago

Agree 100%with Ken and Joe. 300 year old...Your trees have experienced colder temps. Take a look at all time record lows in the range of TXLO, records that only go back 100 years or so.

My tree today after -15 last week.

Should be OK even if leaves drop off. It'll just grow new ones.

How do we know the small slender trunked trees in your picture are 300 years old (if that is in fact what you actually intended to post)? Have they been increment bored?

I also live in the Dallas area and we have two large Live Oak Trees. The leaves turned dark brown and I noticed on the 10 year old tree, the leaves have now almost completely dropped off in a matter of a day and it almost looks bald now. The older 25-30 year old Live Oak tree now has dark brown leaves and I can tell they are getting ready to drop off as well. I rake these every year and this is not the usual loss of leaves. I have never seen a Live Oak tree completely bald before. Like someone mentioned, unfortunately there is not much you can do as this storm was unprecedented. Very unusual temps for Texas for that long of a period of time. Hopefully Mother Nature will bring back some of the life and they just have a bit of damage and are not completely lost.

SNorhunrez, if I saw correctly, Dallas was anywhere from 2 below to 2 above 0. Likely your trees are Quercus fusiformis, the Texas live oak but could be Q. Virginiana, either way they should be ok. My TXLO have easily survived those temperatures and appear to have survived our -15 temps this year. Today I lightly scratched the outer bark of last year's growth to expose the inner bark and in most cases shows green. Even the Cork oak appears undamaged but I had that covered for the coldest two weeks.

Mike

Anywhere a species of tree is native it should be assumed it has survived everything the local climate has thrown at it for thousands of years. Of course, there will be some instances where a tree died out in a particular region during an adverse circumstance and then migrated back in from outside of that area later.

Thank you both for your response. It was 0 for a very long period of time. A couple of days we did not get above 12. I have lived here most of my life and never experienced temperatures that low for an extended period of time. These Live Oaks definitely have survived everything nature has thrown at it just not this particular test. I do pray for the best. We have a family of Red Tail Hawks in the big Live Oak and it certainly is dear to my heart. Looks like we lost our Indian Hawthorne bushes and Privets too. Thankfully the young Maple tree appears to have come through with flying colors. New buds ready to bloom and I am relieved. I need to check into covering the trees if we ever have temps like this again. I wouldn't know where to begin but I will start researching.

I have heard both ways, fertilizing these trees and not. Is there a real arborist out there without an agenda who will weigh in on this? I have had amazing results with Medina products as well...seems that might be a better way to go right now.