Only fellow gardeners can understand grief over a plant, so, first, my sympathies.

If there are green leaves emerging anywhere, the tree is clearly not dead, so where there is life there is hope. It would be very unusual for a 5 year old tree to suddenly die over winter. Extensive root damage from voles is possible, but doesn't really seem likely. Z5a is really at the extreme limit for halesia cold tolerance, so if you experienced unusually cold temperatures plus drying winds this past winter, I'd guess that winter kill of the top growth is the most likely case. Keep it well watered this spring and wait at least until the end of May to see what happens. After that, prune back to live tissue.

Patience.

You may have to do some babying if you have lvs coming out.

Dan

Wendy, try those tears... where there are leaves not all is lost. I so feel with you. I lost mine this winter as well, it's really dead, the bark scratch revealed it. I am looking to replace it, especially since I saw two in bloom on the grounds of the Biltmore estate this past weekend. I am not familiar with the variety you mentioned, but I am intrigued now to find out what others there are. What other varieties do others grow, and how do you like them?

Here's the new growth. I guess there's a tree in there. Never seen anything like this before.

{{gwi:365721}}

Cold damage. Vole damage probably would not kill a tree that has been in the ground five years, roots would be too extensive. I have a Chinese Tallow tree (popcorn tree) that I brought up here from S.C. It freezes back every winter, I cut out the dead and let it go. The bottom of the trunk is a nice sized tree now and the top growth gets a little higher each year. The larger stems do not die from the freeze. It is not a pretty tree because it is hard to shape with normal pruning. But, it did bloom last year, but did not have any fruit, maybe one year. One thing I won't have to worry about is it becoming invasive and taking over the woods! It is definitely too far north of its zone, but fun to watch from year to year. I figure it bloomed last year because of our mild winter. There is no way it should bloom this winter. The die back was about the worst I have seen in several years, we got down to below zero one morning. But, the tree is still alive and new growth is out, except in the very top of the branches. They all froze.

They do have silverbells at The Arnold Arboretum. I don't know what cultivars they have, but it would be worth while for you to see what they have. Then I would make my decision on whether to replace or not.

Thanks for the tips. Unfortunately, Arnold Arboretum is a full zone warmer than me, so that won't help. Their herbarium is down right now, but a search shows they have both species, tetraptera and carolina. Mine is carolina. There are not many cultivars from what I recall.

Maybe I can transplant it and try to find a better micro-climate for it. I forget what conditions I was going for when I chose its current location. I successfully wintered over a sourwood last winter on a sunny SW hill. Maybe Halesia would like it up there. There's room too because I just lost a birch to ice damage there.

We had a very odd and extreme December ice storm last year. We went from rain to ice in a short time and had massive tree breaks at a certain layer in the atmosphere where the tops of huge trees froze and snapped off. It was a warzone look (and power-failure disaster) in at least a 50-mile radius. Still cleanup is going on. I don't know if this Halesia was subject to that weather phenomenon. Its so small I don't think the warm/cold layer thing would play into it, but ya never know.

yea, I'm going to go look for a better microclimate. Give it a nice TLC planting zone and cross my fingers.

...both species, tetraptera and carolina. Mine is carolina....

sorry.. that was confusing. just to set the record straight, tetraptera was formerly carolina. When I said "both species" I was thinking tetraptera and diptera (4-winged, 2-winged).

Anyhow I checked Dirr and H. tetraptera is generally Zone 4 (surprisingly). But, 'UConn Wedding Bells' bred in Ohio, is listed as Zone 5.

Also Dirr lists 'Arnold's Pink' as a cultivar so that's likely what AA is growing -- at least.