Maples resisting dormancy

[jagboy69]

Might have a problem here in Texas. Here it is almost Feb and I've got maples in growing pots with leaves still on them! I have 4 tridents, two of them dropped their leaves and the buds actually opened! The other 2 still have green leaves on them! These things must be seriously confused. Now it's 20degrees and I'm kinda at a loss. They live under cover on the patio, should I just leave them there, put them in the cold garage or kick them out into the sleet and snow? Funny how the one variety of trident is almost still in full leaf! The Buergerianums just don't wanna drop leaves. I've got them out of the wind and up against the house. No sun for a few days and temps very cold.

The ginnalas dropped, budded and is growing leaves! I'm from florida and still learning about this dormant thing. Didn't have this issue with coconut palms. lol

Thanks!
Jason

 

[Shibui]

Not sure how cold it's likely to get in your area but I've had Japanese maples go right through winter with leaves after I pruned a bit late one year. No problems with temps down to-3C. They all just went back to normal cycles after Spring.

 

[jagboy69]

Good to hear. II doubt it will get much colder than this. It's 11f tonight. SO I'll keep them on the patio close to the house and let them do their thing.
Thanks!

 

[rockm]

Good to hear. II doubt it will get much colder than this. It's 11f tonight. SO I'll keep them on the patio close to the house and let them do their thing.
Thanks!

-3 C is 26 F. That's not all that cold. 11 F is -11 C. That's substantially colder and in the root killing zone for Tridents with unprotected roots. I'd bring those trees inside--the photo shows early growth, which means the roots on that tree have lost most of their frost resistance and are vulnerable to freezes (particularly freezes below 25 F).

 

[Bonsai Nut]

This has been a strange winter for us, for sure. The last week of Nov and first two weeks of Dec were extremely cold here - lows below freezing and one night down to 12F. Then we had an extremely warm end of Dec into early Jan. Now we are looking at ten days well below average. Any deciduous that I own that was showing green or bud swelling is in an unheated garage. My cars can take the cold... the trees probably could (particularly if I mulched them on the ground), but why risk it?

 

[jagboy69]

It had been a very strange winter indeed! I found some PDF on here last night that had temp mins for different species. It said 25f for my tridents.
So I checked the temperature in the garage last night right by the door and it was around 40. I saw our low was going down to nine and I chickened out and put them in the garage.
Glad I did.