I had a similar experience like whaas. I purchased and planted 2 'Wine and Roses' in 3 gallon containers in the spring of 2011. Come spring of 2012, all the top growth was dead (this after an incredibly warm "winter"). They both vigorously sprouted from the base last year, probably around 2' per stem but many stems came up and the resulting plants are much fuller than they were the year I planted them. Still waiting on their first flowers and I have not checked them this winter to see if the top growth is still alive. I'll do that this weekend, now that I have a reason to ;) Since you found green on your stems, I bet they will be fine. You just may not get flowers this year if all the top growth is dead. John This post was edited by j0nd03 on Fri, Jan 25, 13 at 13:43

welcome to the forums jan ... with 18 year old plants.. not much in the way of weather is going to kill them ... especially the huge old root mass ... so though they might have taken some above ground damage.. and need some pruning after they bud out ... i suspect they will be back ... even if they die to the ground.. with no insult to the root mass.. you might be surprised how fast they can regrow ... but.. you might lose this years bloom.. give them a month or 2 longer.. to see how and where they bud out.. and then we can go from there ... [you dont mention where you are???] i suggest you take some pix then.. and start your own post.. with the pix.. and we can opine from there ... ken

Flowers are wonderfull for both plants but my personal choice is wine and roses. But I must admit its been a learning experience for me . I bought 3 weigela last year 2 red prince and 1 wine and roses. The red prince has and is still flowering their heads off but I stray. The WR flowered some last year but did not releaf nor did it grow and I gave up on it as being dead. Meanwhile this season I found two more larger wine and roses 3gal size. They were not flowering when I bought them but I was sure they would they had not flowered up thru early july. So I go over to a nearby plant farm and talk to head man in the shrubs he said they would not flower this year if they had not by now. So I went for broke I started watering these guys heavy compared to what I had been watering and can you believe it they started lightly flowering even in this heat and drought of this year. So the answer I had been severely under watering these guys in fear of over watering and causing root rot. I had read about this over and over. I should not have been scared as I made sure these guys had great well draining soil. So I had also killed the first plant from last year for the same reason. It is said the first two years they need plenty of water till established and then after that they should be ok. So at least now I have a feel for how much water they need at least in this drought.

Thanks for the responses. I'll prune the shrub tomorrow. Hopefully it'll keep a decent shape after all the dead branches are gone. morz8, I unfortunately didn't see your post till after I'd already gotten a cage, but I'll definitely look into Critter Ridder. I've been using several different sprays for deer and rabbit, but I didn't know you could get stuff for cats and dogs as well. (Also, if it really repels squirrels, I'll be extra thrilled.) We have a handful of neighborhood cats (a couple of which just seems like strays) that wander in and out of our yard, and I tend to enjoy their company�or at least find them innocuous. Don't know why that one fellow got so aggressive with a young shrub that isn't even good for sharpening his claws against!