Any Help With Tree ID

Picked this up off a trash pile this spring and trunk chopped it. It came back but I don't know what it is... It was about 3' tall when I found it and it's dead leaves from last year were still on it and golden, like a beech. Any help is appreciated.

Hey Eli.

That's a gardenia. My Home Depot has been selling tree-form gardenias this year and I picked one up last month to play with. They are usually just a pot of sticks so I figured what the hell. Was the top of yours dead?

R

I got it at the very start of spring and the top was dead, or at least not out of dormancy yet. The roots were moist and the scratch test showed green, so I brought it home. It's a 2" base with decent nebari and cool silver/purple/blue bark. Where to go from here?

They don't lose their leaves in dormancy so the top probably was dead or dying. Not much to do now but let it grow, then you can eliminate shoots and reduce that cut. It's pretty fragile now so let that new stuff harden off.

It really is a good trash pile find. Like I said before, single trunk gardenias are hard to find and take effort and time to grow that way.

It would be nice to post pictures of plants right side up. I've noticed a lot of sideways pictures here lately.

Maybe it is a result of taking pictures with cell phones, but a little effort should allow you to give us pictures of plants tht are right side up.

Many thanks.

Cell phone pics they are, and they open normally from my desk top... Unsure why they posted sideways or how to remedy. I am happy that they are of size, that part has been sorted out. Baby steps I suppose.