Your plant is Acuba japonica. When did you transplant it? These plants prefer some shade in both winter and summer but I do not believe you have winter damage--at least I have never seen local specimens looking as bad after the worst of northeastern winters. Cut back to healthy tissue if you want to try to rescue it. These regenerate quite well if happy. I have had deer eaten one recuperate from the base and grow new plants at ground level. Wonder if some kind of blight is affecting you regionally.

One of the black-leaf cultivars of Norway Maple, such as 'Crimson King'. Not 'Autumn Blaze', which is a Red à Silver Maple hybrid, green in summer and red only in autumn (and a far more attractive tree). This one is not worth keeping. It may live, but is weak and at high risk of breaking in a gale. Resin Here is a link that might be useful: Your photobucket link

Sounds like they are, in fact, dead.

GG, thanks for the pictures and for the rooting illustrations! I am intrigued by communal rooting. I've only done it in individual little plastic cups, so that roots can be seen growing. How do you (and you, Denise) know when it's time to repot to individual pots? I am assuming it's hard to tell which cutting(s) have rooted reliably enough for that? Is your sign resistance to light tugging? What if some cuttings are ready and others are not? This shared hormones thing is interesting. By the way, I've read recently about the rooting hormones that are sold as gel or powder. I thought they are chemicals that encourage plants to form roots in that area - and that is true. But what I did not know is that they are the same chemicals (only synthetically produced) that plants develop themselves. Do you use rooting hormones? I wonder if sharing the hormones is important if every stem is dipped into the hormone of its own. I've placed my little cups into a container for humidity, but a vessel like this will take less space and also create humidity. There's no drainage, I assume, right? Which is fine because it's hydroton and some water needs to be at the bottom anyway, and because it's a relatively short term home for the plants. Sunny, I agree your cuttings look fine. The thinner leaf varieties tend to lose moisture when cut faster than those with thicker leaves, but then most do regain it slowly once they are in the mix and kept moist and humid. One of the cuttings I am rooting now (GG, your heuschkeliana) did arrive a bit dehydrated, but for a month now very slowly it's been regaining moisture. It's pretty cool to watch. I've never seen an established plant, but all leaves except for the lowest one look very much turgid now and have lost all of their wrinkles. I foolishly thought when I got the plant the wrinkles were part of the deal of how this plant looks - I thought that was charming and unusual. hehe One thing I personally would change, Sunny, is I suggest taking larger cuttings. It does depend on the plant's growth habit, leaf size, distance between nodes etc., but a 2-3 node cutting is likely to root better and be stronger than a one-node one. It's no biggie though - they all should root, especially no problem at this time of year. How is humidity now in San Antonio? I covered them up in the winter, and even these days 30% humidity here is normal, but too low for optimal rooting. Big Box stores may not have hydroton indeed, but your local hydroponics store is almost guaranteed to have at least one type of hydro medium. It does not have to be hydroton - it could be called LECA, PrimeAgra, Growstone, Grow Rock, Hydrocorn and many others. They all look slightly or even significantly different, but they work essentially the same. Having open options means you may get the medium sooner and won't have to pay shipping, which is expensive for these bulky bags.