I planted a Mexican Olive (Cordia boissieri) tree last year and it looked healthy until a major freeze in January 2024, when I thought I might have lost it.
I had to wait several weeks, but the tree did eventually recover. All the previous growing points of the tree were killed in the freeze, and so new growing points formed a few inches further down on each branch and have been growing nicely. The dark twigs in the center of the photo below are the old growing points.
Finally, several months later, the tree has reached the point where all the new growing points extend beyond where the old ones were. So now it is both taller and wider than it was originally. It looks very happy.
I often see garden critters resting on the Mexican Olive, like this beautiful Green Lynx spider.
I don’t know how often this tree will freeze back in the way it did last winter, when growing points were killed and it had to made new ones. If this happens often, I may find that this plant remains in more of a bush shape rather than growing taller as a tree. We shall see.
Rewilding My Lot 
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