Sounds like winter damage. Pieris can take hard pruning and will respond with new shoots, even from stubs at the base. May not look like much for a season or two but if the plants are still viable, they will respond with new growth. Be sure they get sufficient water during the growing season. An organic mulch at their base will help.

I have not lost any Pieris in my cold zone 5A. I have two unnamed ones that could be 'Mountain Fire'. I have 3 'Little Heath's which are zone 6, and they have been fine. I also have 3 dwarf 'Cavatines' which are fine. All are in part-shade locations. Pieris in the sun is not a good thing. It tends to attract lace bug which can severely damage the plant. When I moved here 18 years ago, there was a somewhat large and pathetic pieris as a foundation plant in southwest facing sun. It looked awful no matter what I did to it to try and fix it up or prevent the bugs. Eventually, I moved it to the shade and pruned and fed it well for a few years. It has filled out and grown to be a really nice looking specimen. The only problem is that many winters the flower buds die over the winter above the snow line. The small dwarf ones are ok because it doesn't take much snow to protect them. But even w/o flowers, it is a great plant in the right location.

I'm sure my Pieris is a Mountain Fire. At one time I had over 200 of them I propagated from cuttings and installed most in landscapes I was doing. I never ran into problems planting them in the Fall....or winter, for that matter. Our cold in the winter isn't too different from Connecticut's.The Pieris j., 'Mountain Fire' may look like a P. formosa forrestii because of the way it has been pruned and I took the picture just after the best red new growth color. Here's another picture of it with a taller variegated one to the left. Mike This post was edited by mikebotann on Wed, Jun 4, 14 at 18:16

Thank you both for the input. Gardengal, yes I have acidic clay soil and the whole bed is pine needles. Ken, the landscaper recommended and swore they had good luck with pieris in our area ... then ate their words by planting two of them that died and ultimately giving me a free Annabelle hydrangea that I planted myself. But you do see pieris sold regularly at reputable nurseries around here. I had to trim the dead 3-foot stem in the middle as I didn't want to invite disease and it actually spurred new growth. The move probably wasn't advisable, but I went from a 3-foot backrow shrub to an 8-inch shrub that wasn't visible. I don't plan to touch it anymore, I'll let it do it's thing and hope for the best. Thanks again to both of you.