My Calliandra (Red Powderpuff) looks terrible...

I just moved into my house in January, and the powderpuff tree in the backyard looks terrible. The leaves are all droopy and faded, and there's not that many puffs on it. It had more puffs back in January, even though the leaves looked bad - but there are fewer puffs on it now, and the leaves look worse. I'm having trouble figuring out what's wrong with my internet searches, but I think it may just be lack of water. It hasn't rained much this winter, and I have no idea when the last time it was fertilized. We've also had some periods of wind and cold weather. The loquat tree next to it looks pretty awesome, aside from split fruits from a cold snap a couple weeks ago. I tried watering it for about 20 minutes with the hose on full blast last week, and I sort of expected it to bounce back like a potted plant, but that may have just been pipe dreams.

If it's just underwatered, what would be a good watering schedule to try and get it on?
What would be the best fertilizer to get for it?

Thanks!

I don't think they're especially thirsty plants. Did you have cold weather before the leaves started looking bad? I know you weren't living in that house, but if you still lived in the same area and remember some frost or something back in November or December that could have done it. If that's the case it'll most likely bounce back in the spring. A picture would really help, but your description sounds like it could be frost/cold damage.

Yeah, I was living about 10 miles from the house, and we actually had a very warm November and December without much rainfall. I don't know how long the house was vacant before I moved in, but I'm fairly sure the sprinklers in the yard haven't been run in some months.

I'm hoping it does bounce back, because those puffballs are so cute, and I was really excited to see it in the yard!

Thanks ecrane!

If it was warm and got no water for that long then it could be lack of water, although I expect you'd see some other plants in the garden showing signs of stress too if that was it. Whether it's cold or lack of water, there's not too much you can do besides wait and see what happens in the spring--hopefully some parts of it are still alive. You might try scratching the bark on some of the branches--if there's still green underneath then it's not totally dead so it should hopefully sprout some new leaves in the spring.

Here's some pictures...

First one is a big shot of the clump of plantings in the corner. On my side of the fence, theres a Loquat on the left, the puff in the middle, and something I don't know the name of to the left.

Second is a closer up shot of the puffball

Third is the thing I don't know the name of

Fourth is the bromeliad patch right behind the puffball.

On the other side of the fence behind the loquat in the neighbor's yard, there's some jasmine vine invading my yard, and another big tree thing I can't ID

Since it doesn't look totally dead, I might just keep my fingers crossed - but if there's a chance some fertilizer would help I'd like to do that. I forgot to mention that my house is fairly close to a canal, that tree patch is probably only 50-100 yards away from the canal with nothing between the patch and the canal. So since it's so big, maybe it's been able to survive on what groundwater it can reach?

Sorry, with the glare from the sun it's really hard to see what's going on with the Calliandra. I would say hang in there and keep it watered and hopefully it'll improve in the spring. Some plants naturally get a bit ratty looking over the winter and if this one was stressed a bit extra by lack of water that could have made it worse, but hopefully it'll come back for you.