Since you said above that the roots are sprouting that means they are alive and the water didn't do them damage. Actually, looking at what you wrote you said only some of them are sending out suckers. The ones not sending out suckers may have drowned. How much they grew is not going to help a lot with diagnosing rootstock compatibility, it is often delayed and sometimes for a lot more than a year. I didn't know anyone used callery comercially and that makes me downgrade my suggestion that that is your problem, if you were putting asian scions on those stocks. If you were putting Euro scions on callery, there is still a strong likelihood there is delayed incompatibility going on. Scott

My cannas shriveled up sitting in plastic bags sitting in a proper root cellar over the winter. I grabbed them all filled up the laundry tub with semi warm cold water and threw them in the tub for a week to saok( I think this is good especially for the water loving cannas). After that I pulled them out and threw them on a piece of cardboard on the basement floor - They are still sitting there waiting for me to pot them up. After the soak the tubers came to life again showing nice healthy white eyes - I do recommend this to anyone thinking their Canna may have bit the dust. I will probably pot them up in the coming week as we are having a bit of a cold spell this week and have no place to put them. Next year I will try to find large paper bags - I think plastic bags hold to much moisture with the possibility of rotting the tuber especially with the dampness of the cellar. I may try the bark mulch idea. Cheers Jeff

Hello WendyB, I am in a similar situation this year. We have a 2 year old Sweet Autumn Clematis that had amazing blossoms for the first time last year (picture below) In late November last year, when all the leaves and blossoms were killed by the first frost, I had pruned it leaving about 3 feet length. The winter this year was unusually warm specially in December and the plant set out new buds and vines which were killed by a later snow storm. Now, there are no buds, no swelling, no vines, nothing. Please tell me I did not kill this beautiful thing. Did your neighbor's clematis come back to life last year?

Hmmm, strange indeed monsteraston. I am west of you and all my macs/serratas/oakleafs/paniculatas have leafed out. Granted, some are leafing out from the base/crown and the panics have tiny leaves (1/2 to 1") but still. Historically, paniculatas and arborescens have always been slow to leaf for me here (compared to the macs, which began to leaf out earlier in February). Make notes in a wall calendar from one year to the next so you can get a good feel what is normal but I am seeing more instances of early leaf out than in prior years, especially with the macs. I am also noticing -this year- some winter damage on selected shrubs that face north and that are in unprotected locations. Probably due to the mild weather that was followed by cold lows in Jan 5-8. That could result in growth from the crown and dried out dead stems from any of those types of hydrangeas. Hydrangeas that loose stems that way may take a while longer to produce new stems from the crown but if the roots re ok then they should eventually do that. When cold like January's pops up, I check my mulch levels and try to provide water before the cold period arrives but, even though I did so, the shrubs on the north side look like they got hit as temps prior to the cold front were so mild and these guys were not "protected" by the house and other things. Macs located there have dried out looking stems with no leaves (at east none so far) but, the plants have leafed out from the crown. Macs in protected locations look normal and are leafing out. Paniculatas like my Little Lime are leafing out. Oakleafs too. FYI - if no stems leaf out on a shrub by mid May and the plant does not generate new stems either then the whole plant did not make it. For now, I would maintain the soil as evenly moist as you can and keep them well mulched. I usually fertilize at the end of the month since that would be about two weeks after March 13, our average date of last freeze. If they do not leaf out by May then they did not make it. Prune the dried out stems then. I would hope that the roots did make it though as they usually do. If you cannot wait until May, you can lightly scratch a stem that has not leafed out to see if you see 'green'. If you see green, the roots are alive; but the stem with green may or may not leaf out. Hard to tell if it will as sometimes they leaf out and other times they do not even though they are green when I check. Years ago, I had one arborescens that did not make it due to issues with the drip irrigation one year. It did not come back and I assumed it was lack of water during the winter as I did not notice that there was a problem until some camellias started browning their leaves in Feb-March. So it pays to water them during dry winters (but seldom, maybe every 2-3 weeks or when the soil feels dry).