Frozen Ficas

In Houston, we incountered freezing tempretures recently. I have a Ficas growing outside and it lost all of it's leaves. Will it come back in the spring?

Then the lawn maintenance people cut the branches off down to it's trunk. Will it survive?

Help!!!

Cynda

It might. Might not, depending on how bad it really was.

What you need to do is really look at the bark on the remaining trunk or branches. If it's starting to slip off the wood, you'll feel it move when you grasp the trunk or branch. That means that section is dead. Where it's firmly attached to the underlying wood, the ficus is still alive. Just keep moving back down the branches and then down the trunk until you find that firm bark.

You don't even have to prune the dead wood yet, if there's any left. Wait until you see new growth buds, then prune off the dead stuff above the buds.

If the bark slips under pressure all the way down to the roots, all still may not be lost. It's possible it will grow back from the roots. Give it time, well past everything else greening up, to see if there's any hope.