Try a scratch test - gently scratch with a fingernail on the bark of a stem. If there is a green layer - the cambium layer - between the bark and the wood, then the branch is alive to that point. If there is only brown or grey to the wood, try further down the branch. If there is NO green all the way to the ground, if you check in scattered spots along the stems, then it is possible that the shrubs are dead. I wouldn't give up until next spring, though, as the roots may be alive, and the shrubs MAY sprout out from the roots, once it warms up. They might not, also. Sorry not to be more hopeful.

Just out of curiosity, where did you buy the shrubs from? And did they offer a guarantee? You might want to give them a heads-up that there seems to be a problem, and see what sort of response you get.....

I see. Thank you for your response.

I got them from Direct Gardening. Well, I am just taking my chance. I know that it is one of the nurseries who do not have much quality plants, yet I thought that woody plants might be a little tougher than perennials. They have one year warrantee though. However, sometimes, the replacement is not better than the original shipment. Thus, it's not really making a big difference.

Also, usually, people who work at sales dept or customer services are not experts at gardening. When I told them any problem, they always told me to give the plants more time....

where is the supplier??? or the actual supplier of the plants??? sometimes they are not the same..

if you brought in stock from a much colder clime... they may be fully dormant... in other words.. not in sync with your zone ...

i wouldnt worry about them all that much.. until next spring ...

ken

BTW: in spring.. you can replace the forsythia by getting cuttings from anyone local.. and sticking them in the ground or in a pot for some extra TLC .. maybe only a 90% success rate .. with just a little care ... just so easy.. it isnt worth paying for them ..

The problem is that I am not knowledgeble enough to know what shrubs or trees can take roots from cuttings :-) However, I guess that most of those shrubs and trees that the nurseries have for sale grow from cuttings. They don't look like seedlings to me at all but cuttings that take roots.....

Always check Garden Watchdog before buying from any mail order nursery. If a nursery has a reputation as poor as Direct Gardening, sending them money is probably going to be like flushing your money down the toilet.

BTW, if a mail order nursery is not on Garden Watchdog, it is either extremely small (being operated from someone's back porch) or very bad (TyTy nursery or its affiliates).

Here is a link that might be useful: The scoop on 'Direct Gardening'

I wouldn't worry about them. Independent of planting zones or temperatures, it's not unusual for deciduous shrubs and trees to loose leaves when they are stressed out (from shipping, moving, transplanting). Let them go dormant and they'll leaf out in the Spring. Hope springs eternal!