Live Oaks are losing leaves after a prolonged freeze, are they dead?

[Pullet Press]

All over town, the live oak trees have been losing their leaves (after a really long freeze). Are they shedding them to grow on new ones or are they just dying?

 

[CHlCKEN]

I know nothing about trees but I doubt they could be killed by something like that.

 

[Ruby Rogue]

Weird. Our trees do that too.

 

[Halfpasthen]

Some oaks are deciduous and some are evergreen. Most of the oaks around where I live are deciduous and lose leaves during dormancy. They're barely just starting to form buds now.
I seriously seriously doubt the unusual cold was enough to kill them. Probably just enough to cause them to go dormant.

 

[Pullet Press]

Thanks for all of the help! Fingers crossed that they are just dormant!

 

[Frankiegirl]

Oak trees are typically the last leaves to fall where I live. Not to worry, your oaks will be just fine....you will just have to rake the leaves again!!

 

[KingD]

Oaks are very hardy. A freeze wouldn't have any effect on them. Deciduous oak trees drop their leaves late in the autumn. Compared to other woodland trees, they often delay leaf drop into mid to late autumn when nighttime temperatures hover near freezing.

 

[Matejka]

Live oaks are evergreen. They "generally" lose 20-30% leaves in spring when new growth starts. After a week of freezing Temps, and 6 inches snow on everything. The green live oak leaves froze. I believe my trees will be fine, however, I have never seen my live oak totally leafless, and it's scary. They are 40+ yrs old and I hope their alive.

 

[Halfpasthen]

Live oaks are evergreen. They "generally" lose 20-30% leaves in spring when new growth starts. After a week of freezing Temps, and 6 inches snow on everything. The green live oak leaves froze. I believe my trees will be fine, however, I have never seen my live oak totally leafless, and it's scary. They are 40+ yrs old and I hope their alive.

That's how ours looked right after the freeze and they're already coming back. Oak trees are hardy to quite low temps I believe.

 

[Artichoke Lover]

Live oaks are much more tender than regular oaks. They should be okay though unless the tree was already stressed. They should leaf out again in the spring. You can help them recover by giving them a bit of fertilizer and watering through this years droughts.