Question
QUESTION: This will be the 2nd winter for my Royal Poinsciana (I am not sure of the spelling); the first year I was able to built a 'green house' enviroment for it (used thick clear pastic and PVC pipe to protect it againt the wind and dew and had heat lamp inside of it); of ocurse it survived and now it has almost tripled in size and I can not "green house" it; I can wrap foam around the branches and maybe the trunk, but besides that and xtra mulch and constant watering, can you suggest other alternatives to keeping it alive for it's second winter; I understand that if I can keep it alilve for two winters, I should be good to go into the future.....how soon can I expect it to bloom?

ANSWER: It should be ok in a Zone 9, thats where I am and they are all over the place and I have never heard of them getting killed by a zone 9 winter; that said however, you do make a valid point about the first several years being crucial, younger tropical specimens are more susceptible to cold then the established ones, so I might be inclined to set up a triad of flood lamps around it, and light it up when the night temps threaten to drop in the low 30's, this should be sufficient to prevent any tissue damage, maybe set up a 4 post with a covering over the tree, so the heat from the lamps collects under it and keeps the entire tree above the ambient surrounding temperature; if the temps dip into the high 20's, then a heavy mulch along the bottom covering the root ball is advised also, but pull it back when it warms up again. They usually begin showing color within the first 3-4 years. Nick

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QUESTION: Thanks for the response, Nick.  With the tree being over over 12 ft tall it makes it difficult to set up a 4 post cover system (this is what I did last year and also included the clear tarp around the posts).  I am hopeing that the flood lamps (should these three be aimed at the main trunk or facing up towards the branches?) and foam coverng will do the job....I should expect all the leaves to fall and not freak out until March....should I tack on a year or two before they show colors due to the winters here?

Answer
...set a step ladder next to it and have two of the lamps set on them so the top part gets benefit from it, have the other one at the bottom so that there is radiance of warmth up the whole trunk. The older the tree gets, the more flowers tht will form.