I have some shrubs that are not greening up this spring. Are they done? WT

It feels like it’s getting a little redundant each year to talk about the weird weather the previous year, but apparently, that’s where we are now. This year there are a lot of plants that are typically green all year whose leaves turned brown in the fall. Some dropped their leaves while others clung to them throughout the winter. But we’ve had enough warm days now that most everything should be starting to push out some greenery. There are some that are always late bloomers like crapemyrtles and a few others, but for the most part, we should be seeing some signs of life by now.

As you may remember, we had an early freeze last fall in mid-October. Most plants like to gradually ease into winter, but it appears a lot of plants were shocked by that early freeze, shocked to the point of dying. Here’s a few examples of plants that were potentially damaged.

English Ivy in some cases took a hard hit. Typically, those leaves stay green during the winter but a lot of them turn brown and are not greening up. If there isn’t any new growth yet, they are probably done.

Boxwoods are another one that were hurt by that early freeze. Boxwoods are rated for growing zones 5 - 9. We are Zone 7 which places us right in the middle, so they should have been safe, but many have mentioned the leaves on their boxwoods turned brown. Typically, boxwoods retain their green leaves throughout the winter and then have a big growth spurt in the spring. If you have boxwoods whose leaves turned brown and aren’t showing any signs of greening up, they are done.

Another one that appears to have not done so well is Hydrangea paniculata. Each year, to be sure we get flowers on our hydrangeas, we leave those brown stalks alone during the winter because hydrangeas bloom on last year’s wood. The flowers are set in the fall on those branches. If you trim those stems back, you won’t get any flowers the next year. Well, many of us are only seeing new growth coming from the base of our plants and nothing happening on the stems. We can wait a little longer to see, but odds are those branches are dead and will need to be trimmed out. This also means, no hydrangea flowers for that plant this year.

Another one that took a hit in some places were laurel plants. These usually have green leaves all winter, but again, the leaves turned brown, and the plant looked dead. Fortunately, many of them are starting to push out new leaves. If this is your situation, it would be good to pull off all those dead leaves to give room for the new growth.

If you have lost a shrub, we have a guide to recommended shrubs for Oklahoma on our website (www.tulsamastergardeners.org) under the Lawn and Garden Help/Trees and Shrubs section. Good luck.

You can get answers to all your gardening questions by calling the Tulsa Master Gardeners Help Line at 918-746-3701, dropping by our Diagnostic Center at 4116 E. 15th Street, or by emailing us at mg@tulsamastergardeners.org. Photos: Tom Ingram