Oh good! Glad I found this. I was looking for a place to ask about my snow-damaged lilac bush (among others). Broken branches stripped down the branch. Will it come back okay? Is there something I should do? When and how best to prune the broken branches?

Thank you in advance!

Thank you so much, NHBabs. I think lilacs are pretty tough. I hope so!

I saw a post on this in the forum; the boxwoods that line areas of the foundation received the brunt of the roof's snowmelt. Upon trimming and reshaping the bushes this weekend I noticed that birds built nests in the broken and mangled branches. Circle of life...

The baby apple trees fared extremely well, despite my predictions. Golden Russet and Northern Spy are upright with fuzzy buds waiting to open. Rhode Island Greening lost a branch under the weight of the snow, but the tree is very low to the ground and I'm just happy it even survived.

The 30 something year old holly bush lost a few limbs, but experience tells me that these plants can be mowed to the ground and will still come back fighting. Rockman, I'm surprised deer found your hollies under the snow. Mine was buried enough that deer didn't seem to be an issue for me.

The mulberry, blueberry, and lilac bushes lost a branch or two, but nothing that a late winter pruning couldn't remedy. I found it to be lucky that a branch broken on the Duke blueberry actually needed to be removed. It saved me the time of clipping it off ;).

Areas of my garden that are STILL under snow include the area with hardy mums and other tender perennials. So much for them. I can see the Nagoya Red kale popping its rotten, disgusting head out from and ice mound. The Cranberry mum we planted in a composted/hollow tree stump has turned into mud-slushy. Everyone pray that the self-seeded borage will sprout once it can bathe in the sunlight again. It took years to find the seed!

And finally, the grass... Well, if I had it my way the entire garden would be vegetables and not grass at all.

tibbrix, I can assure you that you can prune lilacs quite heavily and they will be fine. I had one I was TRYING to kill (wrong place and too big to move) and I cut it back to 20+ year old wood, and it still sprouted from that far back. Ultimately, when they excavated for the new walls, they dug it up for me.

Roskman, my drape myrtle is not broken, but I haven't checked it yet for scratch test. My Magnolia Bracken's Brown Beauty has sun/wind burn but I think it will be fine. The camellias have a lot of burn, and I'm pretty sure all the buds (and maybe some of the plant itself) above the snow cover line, are dead. The buds and leaves that were covered seem better, but still to early to tell. Often, winter damage doesn't show until the warmer weather starts the growing season, as you called it they are in their arctic stupor. Same goes for my gardenia, although it looks pretty good right now. Cacti, lavender, tritoma and red yucca (hesperaloe) all look good, since they were all buried anyway. I am pretty sure my Clerondendron trichotomum has had it, but it's hard to say since it doesn't normally leaf out until at least May, late May usually.

Some of my Knockout roses got knocked out by snow load, but I'm confident that they'll respond to a little pruning and TLC. Most of the evergreens look fine. The holly lost and extraordinary amount of leaves, but I know it's OK. No serious broken branches on any of the trees. Otherwise, it all seems pretty good considering the wild winter we had.

I'm most worried about all the roses planted in the back yard .... that area suffers from tremendous winter winds that come upriver. My Knockouts will do fine but some of the others I'm worried about. Last spring we put in an 'Angel Face' because I had one in my former home, and that's looking "iffy." But I'd especially hate to see any harm come to Queen Elizabeth ... we planted her as our first rose when we moved in 13 years ago. I understand the Queen is a tough old bird!

Only a few things look problematic. Like this variegated holly along the east front of the house .... it has lots of wind burn, I'm guessing (?). I'll trim it back when I'm sure winter is done.

Sadly, the month of March is going out like a lion.

Molie

I've still got stuff buried in snow and my Hopi crape myrtle and the variegated hydrangea are still bundled up so I don't know yet how they're doing. If the weather stays reasonable I'll start uncovering the crape myrtle first (very slowly).

My Euonymus 'Silver King' patch (three plants) were damaged by the wind. The bottoms were covered in snow and may be in better shape. I haven't done a scratch test but I think they'll recover all right.

Its current location is next to some Ilex 'Blue Maid' (I think) that were smashed down by the snow but seem to be bouncing back OK.

My osmanthuses are generally fine although one of the 'Goshiki's has some wind burned leaves. This one was most exposed to the winds; the others were more protected.

Rhododendrons in the area are just beginning to uncurl their leaves - they've been looking miserable in the deep snow. Mine seem to be OK although 'Percy Wiseman', which is still in the cage (squirrel protection), got smashed by snow and lost a lot of leaves. Maybe the cage collected snow/ice on the top and dropped it in hard clumps rather than a steady snowfall.

Pierises seem undamaged and those dwarf conifers that have emerged don't seem to have been harmed.

The big old white pine lost a big branch but otherwise not too much fallen branch damage.

Claire

Rockman - Glad you started this thread. Every winter, it seems we never know what the weather is going to be so I think it is interesting to have a thread to review and to record from one year to the next what effect the weather is having on our gardens. I know if I don’t write it down, I forget. [g]

So sorry to hear about your ‘Pink Velour’. I hope Barb is right, that it comes back from the roots and lucky duck to have your older Crepe Myrtle showing such encouraging signs. too.

Your Southern Magnolia is amazing! I always enjoy your photos of it.

Barb, that is good news about the efforts you made for deer damage. Whatever works.

There’s still too much snow here too for me to see everything. I’ll report when it’s gone and take some photos.

Persimmons, one area I have clear, I can already see a good amount of new leaves at the base of my hardy mums.

Bill, I didn’t know you had Bracken Brown Beauty too. I’m still considering getting one. I suppose I could try a small one to experiment with. I've always loved Rockman's photos of his, it's a beauty!

Very sorry to hear your camellias have been damaged this year. I hope you've only lost this year's bloom and not the whole plants. . I lost my ‘one’ Camellia experiment last winter. I remember that it seemed like it had survived, early spring, then turned brown over the next month. So your explanation makes sense of that.

Mollie, I have to check my variegated Holly ‘Honey Maid’ too. Every year, I usually get some brown leaves and branches. Yours looks like it will be fine with a little pruning.

Claire, sorry to hear you lost your HM Holly. You must be happy to have healthy Osmanthus. Very good to know the Osmanthus that were buried made it through. I still have that shrub on my list.

Rockman-glad to hear your Muskogee is looking good; conditions in my yard seem similar to yours, and I may well buy one once I figure out a spot for it. Sounds like a winner!
Claire-Those osmanthus seem pretty tough, too. Only a bit of burn.
My Arnold Promise witch hazel has finally emerged from the snowbank that was weighing down the branches. Blooming nicely now, and no broken branches.
Otto Lukyen cherry laurel is also emerging from a heavy snow pile, and seems pretty ok.

My Camellias planted last year are still under their protective cover-I tried to pry one up last weekend, but the little anchor stakes are still firmly frozen into the ground. The one I was able to peak at, though, seemed to have green but somewhat droopy leaves. We shall see.

I planted a Magnolia Virginiana 'Northern Belle' (a more evergreen cultivar) last fall, a scrawny little thing. Even though it was tied to a supporting stake, the growing tip snapped a few inches from the top. I guess I'll see if I can train a new leader, but it may have to come out. It only had a few leaves going into winter, and it lost all of those.

And the Zepherine Drouhin rose I had tied to a wire trellis is basically a pile of matchsticks...I assume a lot of it will regrow, as not all of the canes are gone, but it may take a while, and I'm not sure how much die back there is

Ann, here's a photo of my "Bracken's Brown Beauty" from last year.

Bill, that definitely is a beauty! You must be really happy with that. When did you plant it? I hope you will post more photos of it as it recovers from this awful winter. Would like to see how it tolerated the weather. Is it fragrant?

I just took a walk around the garden and I'm surprised that beyond the foundation beds where there is a lot of damage, the rest of the shrubs appear to have come through the winter in fine shape. Viburnums, Hollies, Kolkwitiza, Oakleaf Hydrangea, Arborvitae, Blueberries, Rhododendron -- all look unscathed.

Foundation has Boxwood, Hollies, that will need major pruning. A small Philadelphus I just added last year, has branches broken and a Syringa pallibin will require cutting back to about a foot above the ground. A Ninebark 'Summer Wine' on a corner seems to also be unscathed.

I still have one corner of the yard that I haven't walked in yet, that still has snow, but so far, I'm relieved that it's not worse.

Ann, I originally planted the magnolia around 2007, but when I was starting the garden makeover in 2010, I had the workers move it to its present location. It did OK but was a little slower growing that year, but the following year, and since, it makes good growth every year. I will take some photos when it starts its new growth. It is very fragrant. What I really like are the leaves. Large, deep green and lacquer shiny on top with a rust velvet beneath, and they stay on all year. That can be a problem in heavy snow, although this past winter, none of the snow-laden branches were damaged at all. It did lose more leaves that in past years, but about 75% of them remain and are fine. I'll try to post photos soon.

Bill, that sounds just about as good as I was thinking it would be. I love the brown underside of the leaves and fragrance is something I'm always looking for. I bet I've been thinking of getting one since 2007. lol I'm going to have to give it more serious consideration. Look forward to photos. Thanks. Did you purchase yours locally and how large was it at that time?

Ann, I did buy it locally. It was about 5 feet tall and I think I paid around $50, so I thought it was a good price for the size and quality.

Bill, I try to buy shrubs and trees small too, thinking they have an easier time adapting to a new location. Plus the cost is much better. That is a good price to me. I have a full grown Japanese Maple that started off in a 2 gallon pot that I bought for $25. years ago. It's now as tall as my roof. :-) It's fun to watch them grow.

I'm trying to get outside today. Enough snow has melted that I don't have to shovel the doorway to the high tunnel. There's still too much snow to see how the parsnip patch is doing. There were three shrubs I bought at a fall sale that were left in a trench. We haven't seen any deer except for the two I saw crossing the road. Some of our old maples lost some branches as well as a large branch off a swamp maple. I have had good luck with borage self-seeding, persimmons, in fact I have to pull some of it out. Johnny's in Maine is a great seed catalog and they carry the seed. I vaguely remember buying mine at a local store. The Agway in Concord NH carries a large selection of seed but who knows where I might have originally purchased during my annual seed buying frenzy. Daffodils in the warmest section of the yard (next to the brick walkway to the kitchen porch) are up about 3 inches. I think chives are up an inch. I have herbs planted around the little kitchen porch. I will not be surprised if my ancient (planted in 2008 or 9) sage has died. It's huge with a very woody base. I made some half-hearted attempts to layer some cuttings but I don't think any of them lived.

The worst damage is the fault of my laziness. I never put away the terra cotta toad house and it is now a scattering of smithereens.

I haven't done a full walk of the yard yet - I'm too busy and until last week it was covered in snow, but yesterday coming home from work it was actually feeling tropical in the high 40's, and I walked over to the edge of the driveway and scanned the back yard. The first thing that hit me was the sight of two rhodies at the far end of the yard, planted as the start of a winter screen on the boundary about two years ago, which had been doing very nicely. Had been. Sigh. From where I stood they looked at least half dead, brown, withered. They were finally starting to act "screen-like", lol, and now I'll probably have to replace them.

But I guess if that's the only real damage I have I'll be lucky, although a quick glance at one of my hellebores seemed to show a dead brown mass as well. I'm kind of afraid to venture out there in the yard!

Dee

(defrost, I noticed a few terra cotta smithereens myself!)

Dee - I would bet that your rhodies will leaf back out - that it's just the leaves that are damaged and perhaps the flowering buds. I often have rhodies that look really bad if we've had below zero temperatures before we have had good snow cover, but they always are looking fairly good by June.

Babs, I think the shrubs themselves will survive, but no, half the shrubs are definitely dead (just had a flashback to Princess Bride, and sadly, the shrubs are indeed mostly dead, lol). Anyway, the top halves, at least, are BROWN, withered, and crispy, not just discolored. So half of each shrub is gone. I'll see what size replacements I can afford, and if I can get decent sizes, I'll replace them and move them to a different area. I wanted to end up with a row of them anyway; the two I have were just in the most important spot in terms of privacy.

I had my green colored glasses on. The chives aren't up. The green looks like pine needles or something. The yard looks horrible with patchy snow and icy puddles. I dragged the garden cut thru some snow to reach the high tunnel. Hurrah, the spinach is growing. Just at salad size now. I planted sugar snap peas and some hardy greens but that means I'll have to add row covers once they sprout if nights get very cold. My husband has suggested we bury hardware cloth around the perimeter of the high tunnel to prevent rodents from digging in. That will be a project (I have to help dig). Two dear are grazing in the big field! Dee, I am very sorry about your rhodies. There is a short article about that problem in the NH Farmers Weekly. Sometimes it's freezing wind that dries them out. Our one rhodie is planted against the barn so it is protected from the west winds.

We have chives up, Defrost. They are in a bed facing South that gets mid afternoon shade. We managed to cut away the dead foliage on Hellebores in the same bed and there are new leaves and flower buds coming up along with Oriental Poppy, and foliage at the base of asters and sedums. But I'm not taking photos, because you are right, the yard looks pretty miserable.

We also planted pea seed yesterday in one of two beds I plan to grow them. I had to put black plastic on the bed for a week, to make that possible. The second bed that didn't get the black plastic is still frozen.

Dee, I have a Rhododendron that is right in the windiest part of my garden and it looks great, but it's only about 2ft tall and was buried in snow all winter. I wonder if the part of your Rhodies that are brown and crispy are what was above the snow line?

That sounds like a big job, Defrost, but if you end up with no rodent activity in your high tunnel, that sounds like a great outcome for years to come.

The Weston Nurseries email had a timely article on repairing winter damaged plants….

http://westonnurseries.com/repairing-winter-damaged-plants/

and they have a Deer Symposium on April 11th….

http://westonnurseries.com/seminars-and-events/

A closer look at our rhody shows some brown edges on the part more exposed to the wind. Saw some rhodies along the road on our way through Contoocook that looked crispy brown on the top third. Over in Keene I saw some "ditch" lilies starting to show in the corner of someone's driveway. Our yard looks much better today with a lot of snow gone. Our house is actually elevated a bit so our yard is quite low lying. We've got some big puddles. One year we had some ducks overnight on the largest and deepest.

My rhodies took a beating from all the snow that I had to shovel off the roof, which landed on top of them. Lost some big lilac branches. Roses are tattered but seem okay. I unwrapped the Brown Turkey fig from its big burlap and mulch coat this week. Time will tell, but so far it looks like it loved being under a nice heavy blanket of snow for the last three months. Similarly, there's a clear line across the bamboos where the snow cover came up to: below that is lush green, and brown and cold-burned above.

I'm worried about the perennials in the patch out front, because of all the salt they've been exposed to from the street, and I may have lost a couple of small raspberries I planted last summer. Overall I think we've had much worse winters for my plants. Hyacinths, snowdrops, and crocuses are all blooming now, along with the Helleborus, and the daffs look like they'll pop in a few days. With this warm sun, it's finally feeling like spring.

Now, as long as this wind doesn't drop a giant pine bough on my little greenhouse...

Nekobus, I have a border near the street too, and every year, I use the hose at the first opportunity, to give the whole area a really good soaking to dilute the salt and run it through. I haven't noticed any salt damage.

I was concerned about the Spruce trees in the next yard today, the wind sounded like a train coming through and I looked up to see the tops of the Spruce trees shaking wildly. I haven't started cleaning up perennial beds yet, because of the cold weather heading our way next week. I don't want to be running around trying to cover up everything.

Defrost - Those are some big puddles if they attract ducks. [g]

What a pleasant surprise when I got up this morning and looked out the window, there was only a few small patches of snow left. Bare ground again!

One exciting note today, we have a 'Julia Child' rose that was almost 5ft tall by the end of the season last year, and the whole shrub was buried in snow, since it was close to the walkway that had to be shoveled. I see today that there are nice, new, red leaf buds all over it!

And the bird baths and bird feeders got a good scrubbing today.

A good soak with a hose is a great idea. I'll give that a try. I've always had trouble getting stuff to thrive in that bed. I planted a Rosa virginiana there last year, after reading that they had decent salt tolerance. That's emerged from the snowbank looking healthy and ready to go, so far.

I lost my two beautiful 5 year old green lace maples. We don't know what to do as both broke at the crown-

If we try to cut off the damage I think they will revert to upright maples and they are both anchoring my large foundation beds. Any suggestions welcome. Thanx

Did some pruning of a variegated willow today, and I noticed the variegated red ilicium is looking fine. No winter damage at all, and full of buds and new growth starting. Still have to wait to see about the crape myrtle "Pink Velour". Some camellias buds are showing color, but mostly the ones close to the ground, that were covered by snow for so long. Those parts of the plants are also perfectly green, while the upper parts that were exposed to the extreme cold have a lot of burn, and although I am pretty sure those parts will survive, the buds look a little damaged. My magnolia "Brackens' Brown Beauty" has a lot of leaf burn, and now with the warmer weather, has started to lose a lot of leaves. I think it will survive, but will take time to look full again. Not sure if I'll see any blooms either.

My variegated hydrangea, which is borderline hardy here and spent the winter all bundled up, is beginning to open some of the existing buds on the canes. Last year I didn't protect it and it died to the ground. I don't know yet how many canes have survived or if I'll get any flowers this spring but I'm encouraged by the start. Tomorrow I plan to move it to a somewhat more sheltered spot that will be a lot easier for me to reach with protection next winter.

Hydrangea macrophylla 'Variegata' or maybe 'Maculata'

Pieris 'Karenoma'

Claire

Sorry to see you’ve lost two Japanese Maples, MamaSalvo, that’s too bad. We lost a small one that was just planted last year. I would really hate to lose one that was 5yrs old!

Bill, fingers crossed for your camellias and BBB magnolia. :-)

Claire, I’ve been surprised that I’ve had buds on hydrangeas too. I thought they would be dead to the ground. Sorry about your Pieris and I hope they recover over the growing season.

We did a lot of pruning yesterday. Had to cut a Syringa palabin down to the ground, and remove one boxwood that I felt was beyond redemption. All our boxwoods have a fair amount of brown leaves and need more extensive pruning than usual. Our three Ilex 'Sky Pencil' are upright once again and we just untied them this weekend. They do have a lot of dead leaves and brown tips on more, but they aren't too bad and I think they should recover fine.

I see 3 Clematis that so far are showing no growth and they should by now. We planted three new blueberry bushes last fall and two of them are not showing much in the way of life at all. The other one seems to have made it through unscathed. A small spicebush we also planted last fall, is not showing any life yet, either.

I guess it could have been worse, but, this is more damage than we had, even in that October ice storm a few years ago.

This year I shovelled snow away from half the ground under a magnolia tree because the senior dog is so small he could not be a snow plow. Now the tree on that side looks dead.

The half of the tree where the roots were still covered with 3 ft of snow is just fine. Poor old dog passed away - hope the tree is not a goner too.

So sorry to hear your dog passed away, I'm sure you miss him. We found our dogwood has very few leaves on it. The top 3ft of a 15ft tree has full leaves and blooms, then scattered leaves on the rest of the tree. And that had about 6ft of snow around the base last winter. I think it may have been too cold before it snowed. It did start snowing late last winter.

My fig tree survived! I had thought it was 2 dead sticks, when I cleared away all the straw I had piled over it. But mirabile dictu, there are 3 or 4 new green leaves now, out of the base! The blueberry bushes survived but look thinner, smaller. Hydrangeas seem to have died back; but I must wait a while, as the tall sticks fanning out from the base gradually sprout green leaves and buds. Buddleias also reluctant to green up, but there are signs of life.

What did best was the weeds: creeping Charlie, bittersweet, wild onion.

Thank you for your reports here, and thank you Prairiemoon for your expression of sympathy - first pet loss for me... surprisingly difficult.

You are right about the cold, and not getting a whole lot of snow till February. But the side of the tree that had lots of snow cover over the roots seems fine. I am going to wait for a long time before doing anything drastic here - the tree is 30 years old, and would be missed almost as much as the canine buddy.

Carol, congratulations on your fig tree. Would love to grow one, but, way more work than I could give it and zone 6a - not 6b - probably not the best idea. Our blueberry bushes, butterfly bushes and hydrangeas came back well so far, but are behind schedule. The roses haven't skipped a beat.

Hummers - First pet loss is the hardest one.

A friend has advised me to allow the dogwood a year to see if it won't fill back in and I'll go along with that. I'm watering it well and keeping my fingers crossed. A 30 year old tree - I hope it does come back as well. Hard to lose a tree that old, and think about starting over with a new one. Takes SO long to grow it back to any kind of size.

hummers8, I, too, am sorry for the loss of your dog. I still miss our cats but my husband has said no more pets.

Carol, congrats on the fig tree. Figs trees are for sale at the Agway in Winnisquam NH. I understand they go dormant and can be kept in a semi-heated garage.

Prairiemoon2, hope your dogwood survives. Our rhododendron suffered far more winter kill than I thought despite protection from a building on the west side. It has started to bloom across the bottom. We're being patient since we think the brown top has leaf buds.

Lost a birch tree and shocker of all shockers my knockout roses which were about 6 years old. Of course I went to yank them out and at the very bottom they are growing new red stems below the 4 foot main "trunks". Or whatever you call it. I can't yank 'em now.

On the upside two half dead spruces look better than ever - guess they like road salt. and the azaleas were quite nice.

Terri

My camellias are starting to show growth in the areas that were damaged, and the "Pink Velour" crape myrtle is sprouting. My "Bracken's Brown Beauty" magnolia has lost at least 50% of its leaves, but is showing new growth on every branch, and even some flower buds! My broom suffered a lot of damage, but even so, some of the parts that were NOT covered by snow are fine and blooming. The lilac never looked better than this year! I thought the dogwoods and the Kwanzan cherry didn't look so great this year. They aren't damaged, and they flowered, but they just didn't look as spectacular as always.............I can't pinpoint why but they just seemed less than usual somehow. Rhododendrons are great right now. Aucuba japonica had a lot of damage but there is plenty of new growth. So kind of a mixed bag where damage is concerned, but overall, nothing died.

My old knockout roses also suffered from the winter but they're recovering now. I did have to prune out a lot of dead wood. I probably should have cut them way down but I didn't have the heart to do that (they're old and very big). Three Euonymus 'Silver King' shrubs are sprouting new growth but lost a lot of leaves and many branches are probably dead.

The swaddled variegated hydrangea is good (the bottom half anyway) and the swaddled Hopi crape myrtle is basically unscathed. The Gumpo Pink azalea was devastated even though it was covered with snow and a Fothergilla Mt Airy was somehow knocked over and partially uprooted. I set it upright and I'm just waiting to see if it will leaf out. The other two leafed out normally but flowering was minimal.

Other than that most of the plants are OK, just later than usual.

Claire

Bill, glad to hear your camellias are recovering. I believe I've lost 3 out of 4 (all planted last year), but I'm still waiting for the 4th one to start putting out new growth. This one is the 'April Kiss' that I bought locally last fall as a 3-gallon pot. It got pretty tattered, like the top half of your picture above, and its been slowly losing old/damaged leaves all spring, but still has some green ones. All 3 of the others were mail-order; they started smaller, but had been spring-planted as recommended. They look pretty thoroughly dead. My lesson is that a larger camellia, even fall planted, trumps a smaller one planted at the right time. Still, I can't bear to pull out the 3 crispy ones until I see new growth on the 'good' one, so I know its past time.

I think I'm done with mail-order in general. I am one for six overall, and the sixth one was a fig that was dead on arrival, but sprouted back from the roots.

Seanm, what are the names of the three small ones? Some are hardier than others of course. Have you tried the scratch test on some of the "dead" ones? Scrape a bit of the outer bark with your thumbnail near the ends of the branch first, and if it's green underneath, there's hope. If not, try a little lower on the branch, working your way down to the bottom if necessary. If you find green anywhere, there is a good chance they will come back. My largest camellia is 7x7 feet, and in the extremely cold winter of 2003/4 it died nearly to the ground to wood about an inch and a half thick! (It had been close to 6 feet high before that.) It took until mid-June, but I finally saw a tiny green sprout a few inches above the soil, and today that plant is the big "April Remembered" that is 7x7 feet! So don't give up yet.

Bill, I just did the scratch test this morning, and I found a bit of green on two out of three, so maybe there is hope. Interestingly, one of the two showing green is the Tea Camellia I ordered, which is only said to be z6b hardy, and I got down to -7 last winter. The other two are Korean-type Japonicas that were supposedly z6a: Longwood Valentine (scratched green on the main stem) and Bloomfield (nothing I could find). Also, after I posted before, I went out an noticed my survivor April Kiss is pushing out new growth.

Sean, hang in there! The damaged parts of my "April Remembered" have suddenly started to show several new sprouts, green and healthy. Don't give up or cut off any parts yet, even if they seem dead. It may surprise you, and what's the harm in waiting a bit more? AsI said before, it took until at least mid-June to finally see growth back in 2004 when the largest one was killed nearly to the ground.

Nice to hear that the majority of the plants that looked so bad at the end of winter seem to be recovering for most of you, though I am sorry to hear about plants that didn't make it (and the loss of hummer's dog.) Many plants are late to leaf out here, so I have hesitated to write anything off yet. On many of my plants it is clear where the snow line was in the coldest temperatures, but even those are starting to leaf out in the upper parts although the lower parts have been leafed out for a bit.

This rhododendron will look fine in a couple of weeks.

The Lindera benzoin/spicebush is relatively close to its northern limit, and didn't bloom except below the snow line. I was ready to start pruning the bare branches on the top of the shrub, but today it was starting to leaf out, so I will hold off for several weeks to see what happens. It has once before been killed back to the snow line and recovered quickly, so while I am hopeful that most of it has survived, I know if I do have to do severe pruning, it will recover. I appreciate this spicy-scented spring flowers and stunning fall color.

My bamboo died back to the ground, but I am seeing culms emerging, so it will be fine after I cut back the dead stems and foliage. I am most concerned about my Kousa dogwoods which are blooming below the snow line but have only a very few leaves on the remainder of the trees. It got to -22 that I noticed this winter and may have been a bit colder on a day or two that I didn't check, so I hope that they haven't lost too many branches. They are both more than 10 years old, and one is by the kitchen window and provides endless entertainment for me as various critters perch in its branches.

We finally dug out one of the two dead Syringa palibin, but the other one has one lonely shoot coming up from the ground.

Actually, I've seen some benefits to that long, cold, snowy winter. A lot less annoying bugs. I normally get a lot of Boxwood psyllid and this year my boxwoods are looking better than they have in recent memory. All my roses but one are doing great. 'Julia Child' looks the best. Completely clean foliage and big fat buds getting ready to open, and very bushy appearance. 'Brother Cadfael', also big fat buds with a few insect eaten leaves to pull off. 'The Fairy' had a little more insect damage than the other two, but again, really bushy and pushing out a lot of buds. And the best benefit of all, a much lower population of winter moths.

Bill - Am I missing something? I don't see a photo of your camellias that seanm1960 referred to. Very happy to hear so much in your garden is recovering. If they can make it through last winter, there's still hope I could grow a Camellia. I may give it another try and start off with a larger shrub next time.

NHBabs, I added a new spicebush last fall and it looked dead as a doornail, but I left it and it did start pushing out new growth about halfway up only. So I finally trimmed off the dead tops of the branches and it's actually looking great at the moment and might almost be back to the size it was when I planted it last fall.

Your yard got to minus 22?! That is pretty cold. lol Sounds like Minnesota instead of NH. Do you normally get that cold?

My dogwood is a Rutgers cross between C. florida and C. kousa. It looked awful this spring, as I mentioned above. I think I mentioned I added 12 five gallon buckets of water around the base and now all this rain, I think will make a difference, but in my yard, it's hard to go the whole summer without something drying out. I'm sure I need to make sure it doesn't dry out at all for the whole season. If it doesn't come back fully next spring, I guess I'll have to go shopping for a new tree.

Claire - glad to see that your hard work, swaddling your Crepe Myrtle paid off.

Thanks Defrost - Our neighbor has a huge, very old Rhododendron up against the front of his house, facing West and I wondered how that was going to fare. It also has a Maple tree about 15 ft in front of it, blocking most of the sun. They allow it to grow to the roofline of their cape and it takes up the entire right half of their house. lol Right now the whole thing is covered with blooms from top to bottom. I'm amazed. Are you in zone 5?

prairiemoon- my mistake, Bill's photo I was thinking of is toward the top of the "What's Blooming" May thread, not this one.
And Bill, thanks for the encouragement!
NHBabs-my large Kousa dogwood down here in z6 seemed very late to leaf out this year, really only a few weeks ago, I think, but it now seems fine and is just coming into full bloom. So fingers crossed that you only need to be patient for a bit longer.

Ann, there was damage to several plants, but none of them died. Only one surprise was my hardy pink hibiscus, since they die down to the ground anyway and it's been there for years. My while one and red one are fine.
Here is a picture of the biggest camellia, where you can clearly see the difference between the dead-looking top half and the bottom, which was bent down and covered by snow, is green and blooming and healthy. But starting a few days ago, the top half has started to show new growth pretty much all over. The flower buds are dead, but if next winter is more benevolent. them I should get a full bloom next year.

Thanks Sean, easy mistake to make. [g]

Bill - isn't that something - that the bottom is so healthy looking. I assume the part that was covered with snow most of the winter. You are a very patient person, I would have been very tempted to trim off the top and just allow the bottom to go from there. I hope next winter will be more benevolent as I'm sure we all do. :-)