Thankyou. I found a ficus microcarpa bonsai in a shop so I bought it. It wasn't a ginseng type like the other one but still is the same species. If there isn't enough shoots that come out of the ginseng fig, maybe I could graft a piece of the new bonsai on. Can you use wax to hold it in place?

We're in Zone 7B and have grown a wax myrtle hedge along the highway right-of-way for many years. It is a Southeastern native plant that is certainly not fussy as to soil conditions, and it tolerates pruning well. Our wax myrtle is frequently hacked and butchered by the county road crew, and it grows back with gusto. The plants also produce a lot of suckers, which add to the density of the hedge. I think you would have to be extremely skillful at committing horticide to do any real harm to wax myrtle. Of course, I'm sure you could kill it with more than one type of herbicide. I would cut out the dead branch and let nature take its course.

I disagree with the statement: "...since a native plant, poses no issues with invasive seeding such as both Portuguese and English laurel are prone to do." We planted several Pacific Wax Myrtles in a native garden many years ago and now have wax myrtle seedling popping up every where. So they can become a problem in other peoples flower beds. Both of the evergreen cherries are shade tolerant, the English more so than the Portuguese, so they are problems in wood lots that the wax myrtle wouldn't be. I like wax myrtle more so than the two evergreen cherries because it is native and has smaller leaves. But it has its problems. The wood is brittle breaking under heavy snow loads and with Vancouver B.C being at the mouth of the Frazier River with Artic flows coming down that valley, you get lot more snow than on Vancouver Island. The fall/winter of '10/11 caused a lot of damage to our myrtle with leaf kills, even whole stems, and the snow flattened the bushes. That spring we had to go in an remove all the broken and dead branches. Something that doesn't happen with the two cherries. Portuguese Cherry doesn't get as big as the English Cherry. Its leaves are not that much bigger than the myrtle's. I also noticed that it doesn't have any where near the invasive seedlings that the English cherry has. It might also be found at local nurseries more so than myrtle.

I'd say that cold damage is a real possibility. But the leaves will never 'clear up'. I'd wait a few weeks to assess the extent of the damage before deciding how much to prune. I experienced the same kinds of weather conditions in my northern Alabama location as you, and some of our less cold hardy plants really took a beating this year. A much loved Osmanthus fragrans, planted from a three gallon container and now about 11' tall may have to be removed. As the temperatures get warmer, the damage may appear to get worse as the bark on the smaller branches begins to split. You'll be thrilled, at that time, to learn that wax myrtles respond like champs to being cut all the way back to the ground. They can regrow three or four feet (or more) of healthy new foliage within a few months. I think that we both should adopt a "wait and see" attitude.