Cordyline Australis

[kimi]

hello,

I've had a look through the commonly asked questions but i failed
to find a answer

i have a Cordyline Australis growing in my front garden,
it was a £5 potted plant i got from Cornwall a few years ago
we planted in a corner so it had protection.
However it was planted about 3 foot away from the house,
its grown really well & is around 7ft high now
its flowered twice too.

I'm just a little worried that the roots could be damaging our house?
i don't know how large the root system gets on them

Will it be OK to stay where it is?
or do i risk losing it as i understand moving a Cordyline Australis at that size
would more than likely kill it

kimi

[mouse]

Hi Kimi
welcome to the forum
i don't know the answer to your question but I'm sure somebody will be along soon to answer it for you

[RogerBacardy]

Hmm, tricky one, they have fibrous roots and more vertical tap style roots. They don't have chunky horizontal tap root like many native trees.


But they can get massive. If you keep it where it is, it would be fine for maybe 10-20 years, but then due to it's sheer size you might be concerned about subsidence just due to the volume of moisture uptake.


If you want to move it, it's very important that you do it in stages: Dig a trench about 1 foot out and 1 foot deep, all the way around. This will be very hard work and you will sever many roots, but by doing this it will still have the vertical roots which will sustain it enough to enable it to create new roots within the trench area.

After a few months you will then be able to remove it completely by severing the vertical roots at the bottom. The cordyline will survive because it would have had time to create new roots from when you dug the trench. Digging it out in 1 go is a huge gamble and will put enormous stress on it.


I'm not sure on the time scale though, it's autumn, so might be too late to do it now. I'd dig the trench early March and move it in May.

[kimi]

thank you

I'll do what you say next year.