Trim it back hard, once the flowers have fallen, and fertilize with any good quality palm fertilizer - 12-6-8 from Bushel Stop is a good choice.

Fertilize now (March) and again in late June and once more in October. Use a cup of fertilizer for each inch of trunk at chest height, spreading the food out to the edges of the crown and no closer than one foot to the trunk.

I have 2 Hong Cong Orchid trees one is sickly one is not, I do not use palm food on these trees but rather acid loving plant food as is reccomended,(same used for azelia's or hybiscus) also in my research it said to feed in Oct. before blooming no other time mentioned?? and also to give them something for the yellowing, I use magnesium, we have no idea why one of our trees is on the scrawney side, we also give them systemic, as they were attacked when first planted, by insects, munching the leaves. Ours were planted by a nursery, I will be very interested to see if you find a cure?

I assume Ricky is fawnridge? Thanks so much for the help. My gardener is going to prune it back hard today and will follow the suggestions for fertilizing with good palm fertilizer.

I planted a Hong Kong Orchid tree in mid-April. It lost all of its leaves and bloomed profusely till late May. It then started leafing again, but the leaves are very small and sparse. Any advice or ideas. Thank you.

I moved to Port St Lucie last March and fell in love with the Hong Kong Orchid.........Beautiful. I bought three trees in late Jan and Feb? 2011. I didn't plant them for about a week because i wanted to try to get past anymore flirtations with 32 degrees. I planted them as they started looking rather sickly. The leaves turned yellow and fell off. The blooms stopped and died off. I have some very unattractive trees right now. Can i ask? Will they come back as the temperature starts to get quite warm? Is this normal? I will take any help. I love these trees and I feel awful because i really want them to survive. I take my plants health very seriously.
Thank you

I moved to Port St Lucie last March and fell in love with the Hong Kong Orchid.........Beautiful. I bought three trees in late Jan and Feb? 2011. I didn't plant them for about a week because i wanted to try to get past anymore flirtations with 32 degrees. I planted them as they started looking rather sickly. The leaves turned yellow and fell off. The blooms stopped and died off. I have some very unattractive trees right now. Can i ask? Will they come back as the temperature starts to get quite warm? Is this normal? I will take any help. I love these trees and I feel awful because i really want them to survive. I take my plants health very seriously.
Thank you

Our tree was doing great last year and this spring it got alot of new healthy leaves but all of a sudden they are all turning brown and falling off. Help!

I got a Hong Kong Orchid tree in December and in the last 3 weeks the leaves have been turning yellow and falling off. The tree looks sickly and scraggly. I gave it some Osmocote Flower and Vegetable plant food 3 weeks ago. What is wrong with my tree? It is about 15 feet tall. Help. Tks.

It's my experience that these trees are semi-deciduous in the spring (at least in 10b). Usually lose most of the leaves when it warms up. New growth after the rains in early summer.
Groove

I agree with the heavy pruning. I have three of them--all planted in the ground. There's one with red flowers. It had a strong and damaged branch close to the middle of the trunk. I sliced half of it down and, the tree kept throwing out new shoots at a fast rate and the leaves all look very green and healthy. I was worried about the other two showing sick looking leaves. The last summer, both had many long and straggly branches that were bordering our driveway. They had a good "hair cut," and since then, they have grown a lot faster than before. One of them which is the smaller sized one still has some sick looking leaves that look like they have been munched on. My guess is that younger tree tend to be a little weaker. I'm planning to clip off all those bad looking branches of leaves and see how things go from there. But, definitely trim it back to encourage new and healthier growth.

Hi,
Have Hong Kong Orchid Tree, Orchid Bush, and Orchid Vine. My experience is that they are semi-deciduous in cooler weather and they hate disturbances with root systems. I have gotten some mail order, do not like traveling or being transplanted. There is a tendency towards leaf scorch when under stress, I usually mist the plant and wrap with a plastic trash bag for a few days, helps with leaf scorch. I prune my bush and fertilize all with fertilizer for acid loving plants, needs iron, too. Tend to get chlorotic, I have a spray that provides iron, they like that.

I live in Gilbert, Arizona and i just planted a hong kong orchid tree this week. I'm looking for some suggestions on care and maintenance. I have a drip line set up with it, however I'm not sure the GPH for it. How much water should be given daily?

The rule with any perennial you plant is that it sleeps the first year, creeps the second year and leaps the third years. Trees, especially, just need to be given a chance to get established.

@ SusieQ: Automatically applying an insecticide-systemic or not-is never a part of good horticulture. Where pesticides are concerned, use should always follow accurate identification of the pest target. Flinging these highly toxic materials into the environment for little to no reason simply cannot be justified. It is almost a certainty that you are impacting organisms far beyond whatever was munching on the foliage whenever that was. And that insect-again identity unknown-is almost surely not present anymore.

I brought some seeds back from HK to the UK and have managed to grow one to about 2 ft high. It's a single stem with leaves that close up at night. I would like to know how to care for it as a young plant. I've kept it indoors for a year now and give it rainwater every other day. All advice will be helpful - thank you!

Our tree is showing kinda green yellowish leaves that are all folded in half. does this mean anything bad? There are many blooms waiting to pop but so far it's only given us 2-3 blooms at a time. It was planted about 2 months ago. Hoping everything is okay! Also, how far from the base of the tree can I plant other plants?