I live in an area where Rhododendrons are a bit borderline. Here's my experience with a large Rhododendron, probably a Roseum elegans, the only one of my Rhododendrons that regularly gets winter kill. (It was planted by a previous occupant of the house and probably isn't ideally sited.) Even if all current leaves are damaged and even the flower buds (the fat ones at branch tips), and occasionally even the leaf buds (the smaller ones near the branch tips) are also damaged, often the wood is still alive. Wait until you see the blooms start to fade on the undamaged parts of the shrub. Within a few days, you should see either the leaf buds near the branch ends start to leaf out, or failing that, about 2 weeks later small reddish green bumps on the woody stems farther down will start to appear and swell. It's amazing how a really ratty looking plant will fill out in a relatively short amount of time. If they really bother you, remove the severely damaged leaves, but don't be in a hurry to do any cutting of branches. Rhododendrons have the ability to start new buds from under the bark on what look like bare branches, so as long as the wood is alive, the plant will recover. I don't usually prune away dead wood on my rhodies until mid-June to early July because by then, I can tell what is dead rather than winter damaged. (Gardening teaches me patience . . . ) If it ends up that the top of the shrub is dead, almost always whatever has been protected by snow will still be alive (if you had snow in the unusually cold part of the winter.)

What did you decide on your tree? I'm thinking my oak tree is dead or dying but can't tell. Is about 6-7 years old and has suffered a lot of stress and trauma. We bought our house two years ago and it's the only tree we have. About two months after we moved in, it blew almost completely over with regular texas winds. We put it back up and gave it more soil and root stimulator. The previous owner later told me The tree had blown over while she lived here for four years and it had been staked, but they removed the stakes to sell the house. It's always had very small limbs and no new growth except a few leaves on the main trunk. It doesn't have any main branches...just straight up with some small beaches about a third of the way down from the top. Last august a storm came that pulled the whole tree...root ball and all out of the ground and dropped it in the neighbors yard. That's when I noticed it had no main roots coming out...just a solid root ball. We redug the hole larger, replanted it with fresh soil, fertilizer and root stimulator and staked it. It got more steady and I watered it regularly with a slow run from our hose. I took the stakes off this spring an now it is leaning again, still with no new growth. I think it's had too much stress and isnt going to grow, but my husband says it's fine. Thoughts?

FWIW, I don't prune anything back until you can see canes start budding out in the spring. That'll be earlier for you than me Susan, but for me it's some time in March. As I see it, if you prune off the 6 inches of black cane now, that just makes it more likely that the next 6 inches of cane will die before spring actually arrives. It's not that the dead cane protects the rest of the cane - you do want to prune off the dead cane as soon as there's much chance of new live growth. It's rather that the dead cane provides a little bit of buffer from the worst of the weather for the rest of the cane. Having said that, if the cane is broken, do prune it off so the dead weight doesn't pull bark off the cane lower down. Nothing mends a break, but the bent canes will often recover remarkably as Ann says. Also, in my experience nothing really wakes them up prematurely or keeps them asleep longer that I do, barring some unrealistic extreme care. They'll bud whenever the soil temperatures tell them to, whether I'm ready for them or not. Cynthia

I’ve only been seriously gardening for 12 years, but hostas were my first obssession. I can tell the didference between droopy and sad vs actively dying and decaying. One person advocating for keeping the leaves reasoned that the ”brown” leaves were not sapping energy from the plant, so they should stay. The post must have been deleted because I simply can’t find it anywhere. It’s not important, it’s just been an ongoing mantra in that group to never prune a damaged because it will set it back. They’re so rigid without allowing for any nuance. If I had an expensive rare hosta I would baby it a lot more for sure! But you wouldn’t believe the pearl-clutching when I told the group I had pruned a few leaves off my 6yo Humpback Whale. It was the first season it hadn’t been damaged by rabbits when emerging or soon after. It was huge and after taking out two leaves it looked perfect, finally!! It brought me so much joy to see that big beautiful plant that I’d been waiting on for years. I was chastised when I hadn’t harmed that plant one bit. I clean my tools and it’s not as though I’m advocating for cutting at them like topiaries or giving them the chelsea chop or mowing them, lol.