Pruning Winter Damaged Plants

[@JimPutnam]

One thing that I forgot to mention in the video. If your plants having cracking or peeling bark down at the base near the soil and they look dead above that, usually that is a bad sign. Frequently water will freeze in that part of the plant and destroy it from the inside out. It might still come back from the roots, but likely it is not good news. Thanks for watching.

[@sammysworld5485]

Hi Jim. Maybe you can expand on this more in another video. Not sure exactly what this mean. TY

[@stephaniejiggetts8972]

Thanks for all your knowledge! I greatly appreciate this channel. New gardener in 🏡 Southern 💚 Virginia.

[@begrace4862]

I’m going to let the arctic blast be a blessing in disguise for my old hydrangea bed. All their buds were black and crispy and I thought it would be a good year to just give them a rejuvenating prune since they weren’t going to bloom anyway. Then I decided to just take them all out because they aren’t reliable bloomers and I realized I spend each winter wondering if the blooms will survive. With all the new hydrangea varieties out there, surely I can find replacements that give the joy back to that space.

[@HoosierDaddy_]

"when these die, they just tend to be dead" ~Jim 2023. Just ribbing ya! Thanks for showing this process. You've completely turned my garden around thanks to all of your great videos!

[@KimberlyLoweWilliams]

Absolutely love and appreciate your videos. One request more closeups of what you’re doing. Learning along the way and greatly appreciate all that you all do!

[@atlantagardener1]

My old nikko hydrangeas seem fine with normal spring growth up the stems. Other hydrangeas (Fuji waterfall, tuff stuff aha, blue jangles) all seem to have died back to the roots but all have new shoots coming out from the base. The thrill of watching new spring growth is especially exciting to see this year on the things that survived. A gasp of delight every time I find new growth on something I thought had died!

[@gracematter]

I have so much damage! It's breaking my heart. I'm so glad you are discussing this! Thank you, Jim. Oh, I'm in Tennessee.

[@josweatt898]

Thank you so much for this timely video. I know you were getting a lot of questions on it as so many of us have some pretty dead looking stuff at this point. It is reassuring to here how you deal with it when our first instinct is to yank it out .

[@jumprope04]

Jim, thank you for this! I live in the TX panhandle. Everyone here is dealing with winter damage. We planted our first garden in the fall with hardy shrubs for extreme weather but they look pretty sad! As a beginner I thought it was normal, ha. Today I took leaf samples to our favorite nursery today where we purchased the shrubs. They explained everything you just said and talked me through what to do. I'm relieved I didn't cause this to happen. I hope we can save them - or most of them. Thank you again for all your wonderful videos.

[@annetteshaver1821]

Awesome video. Really good advice for cold damaged plants. Thank you 🙏 😊

[@pd8559]

I have two hardy oleanders pink and red. Both died completely to the ground. I did plug planting back near them and noticed green shoots in one. I dug a little around the other and white shoots are growing up trying to reach the surface. Phew, thought I lost those two which were some of the latest purchases.

[@8helenjhouston8]

New T-shirt slogan “When plants die they tend to be dead.” LOL

[@TheMRBBB2]

Appreciate the HD 2160p! Allows me to zoom in on the plants and see the frost damage

[@judymckerrow6720]

Thank you Jim and Steph. ❄️💚🙃

[@dylan8285]

Generally a good solid 2 weeks of 80 degrees+ will let you know if it’s dead or not if you don’t see any signs of life after that point the plants done for

[@nevar23]

Thanks, Jim! My two August Beauty gardenias seemed to take the worst damage, but on your advice I've waited to see what they're doing before pruning. The smaller (2ft) one might be toast. There's about 5 green leaves, but fingers crossed that it bounces back. Surprisingly all of the hydrangeas did well. I don't really expect flowers on the macs this year, but at least they survived! :)

[@judymckerrow6720]

I live in Michigan, while we had some nasty weather, high winds and tons of snow, we couldn’t even see our garage door, I don’t think anything I have planted took any damage. I guess I can count that as a blessing.❄️💚🙃

[@katiekane5247]

My upright Gardenia might look like a radicans when I prune all the burn out of it. I'm waiting a bit. Good reason to leave perennials all winter, some that usually have basal growth don't this year. Still hopeful on a lot of stuff.

[@HectorO]

Perfect! This reassured me that my plan is correct.

[@kathrynmettelka7216]

In previous gardens, I have been surprised by surviving plants which initially looked dead. Don’t give up too early.

[@jasminelouisefarrall]

Thank You Jim 🥰

[@rachelsgarden]

Thanks for covering Rosemary. It is the only plant I lost in that event. This is my first year growing joe pye weed. Does it emerge later in spring?

[@HandcraftedintheFoothills]

Thanks Jim..so much damage in East TN....Defoliated Oakland Holly trees and Tea Olives (no green on scratch test for tea olive), azeleas are burnt to a crisp, distylium are crispy, lorapetulum crispy and shockingly some extensive browning on Carolina Sapphire trees....I am waiting it out til End of April/early May before I make a decision on what if anything needs replaced. Camelia got very dark purple leaves but are starting to green up..not sure if crepe myrtles made it yet...

[@JimPutnam]

That's tough. Good luck with everything!

[@josweatt898]

Same here in W TN, MS. It appears all my newly planted Camellias and new Deodor Cedar are lifeless, so will wait . My big hedge of Azaleas are still alive, but no flowers this year for sure. My neighbors native Azaleas are blooming. What does that tell you?!

[@joellenedwards6782]

I’m in 7B…many things are leafing out and even flowering…..azaleas, roses, heucheras, hydrangeas, hostas….with the freeze coming this weekend, will all that new growth be killed? Should I cover the plants with the most foliage that’s fully open?

[@lanettelawrence6308]

Thank you for sharing.

[@JamesMcCutcheon]

Our compact hollies took a major hit this winter, I don't know what to do.

[@JC-nc9rt]

I have a rising sun redbud that I planted in the ground in October in Dallas tx. It is about 5-6 feet tall and it appears that 2 large branches on one side of the tree are not blooming while the rest of the tree is very alive and in bloom. Does this mean those branches are dead and should I just cut them off? I think it’s cold damage because those branches had early buds in December. Unfortunately if u prune them off the tree will look very asymmetric

[@juliejensen81]

I noticed you had your hummingbird feeder up. Have you seen any yet? Looking forward to their return. I’m in north GA. Thanks for your awesome content!

[@8helenjhouston8]

We live 1.5 hours East of Jim & Stephany and saw our first hummer this evening- 3 weeks earlier than last year (Appeared 4/1/22).

[@josweatt898]

@@8helenjhouston8 may just be a scout. We seem to get scouts early, then nothing for 2-3 weeks then the rest arrive. 7b MS

[@anitahadley2871]

I’m hoping to see some new growth on my Rosemary. Crazy thing, the one I had potted did fine. I’m guessing because it was up against the house and maybe had more protection then the in-ground ones. My star jasmine looks really bad, all the leaves are crunchy. I will wait a bit but I’m trying to decide if I should just replace them with something more reliably evergreen. Not sure what. This happened last year too and it’s not the look i was hoping for. Might as well plant annual vines!

[@JimPutnam]

I saw what looked like a dead confederate jasmine yesterday in a very protected spot. Must have still been growing at the time

[@anitahadley2871]

@@JimPutnam I’ll go give it the scratch test. Not holding my breath on these though. May just plant some Ruby Moon hyacinth bean vines.

[@bland3282]

My jasmine is coming back from roots but everything on the vine cracked open and died.

[@anitahadley2871]

@@bland3282 that’s good to know. Did you just cut it all back or are you waiting?

[@pd8559]

I planted three confederate jasmine in north Texas zone 8a two winters back they died and never came back. And that wasn't the bad ice storm we just had this winter. I've not bought any more since.

[@CapysGardenShop]

Hey experts! I had a $75 small front garden tiny white flowering tree split in an ice storm yrs ago. Anyone know the name? I can ask the shop, but want to research now. And oh no…I could’ve rooted it? Oh the things I’m learning now. Took me 50 yrs. 😂

[@afisergt]

Jim, do you have any thoughts why my lynwood gold forsythia skipped blooming? Its leafing out with only a couple flowers. I planted it last spring and haven't pruned it. I'm in zone 8b, almost 9a, in GA and have it planted in partial shade.

[@JimPutnam]

Likely from cold damage. Also, things don't tend to be their best in the first couple of seasons

[@pd8559]

Jim. I have some Texas sage about a foot and half to two feet round that lost 80+% of the leaves and looks prettt ghastly at the moment. Is this a plant you can cut to the base or should I just leave it and see what greens up and what doesn’t before cutting.

[@JimPutnam]

Just wait to see where it grows from. Good chance it will root sucker even if the whole top is dead

[@pd8559]

@@JimPutnam thank you Jim now back out to get planting more plugs. 👍💚

[@stephaniesharkey3538]

I think I lost my lavenders and rosemary and maybe a few more! Drat

[@HandcraftedintheFoothills]

My lavender are done in East TN...started new ones today from seed

[@Hayley-sl9lm]

What varieties? So interesting how variable those things can be. I have an "Arp" to rosemary that was not phased at all by the cold and an "Irene" rosemary that mostly died back.

[@jcrane45585]

Been waiting for this. What about confederate jasmine?

[@JimPutnam]

If it is cracked near the bottom and totally brown that usually means the worst. If there is any green in it it will recover fast