Is my Ceanothus dead?

[tonibat]

I have had my evergreen Ceanothus for 6 years and it has been thriving. This year however the leaves are all completely brown. Has the really bad frosts (-10) killed it? Should I cut it back to see if it shoots or should I leave it?

Is there anyway I can tell if it is completly dead and need to dig it up?

Any advise appreciated.

[lannerman]

Hi Tonibat, Last year several of my Ceanothus looked very black and sad but by the middle of summer, they had revived but, they did have a few green leaves, not many but were not completely black ?? This winter, they look the same so i shall do what i did last year and that is to trim them about mid -April

So, Id do the same, leave well alone now and trim in April, you might not get many flowers but if its going to grow it will do so quite quickly after this trim.

Of course alot will depend on the variety but if its only 6 yrs old, you should get away with it as normally we wouldnt advocate much pruning.

Lannerman.

[echinosum]

Whatever you do, don't cut it back. They don't shoot from old wood.

Such pruning as you do of it should be in summer after flowering, and don't cut it further back than the leaves, unless you want to take a whole branch out. In this respect, they are rather like leylandii.

[tonibat]

Many thanks to all. I'll leave it and see how it goes.

Thanks

[Albert Jeans]

I planted a variety of this once and didn't pay much attention to the description in the Sunset Western Garden book which said that these plants only lived 6-7 years. Sure enough, after about 7 years, all three plants died! Hopefully yours is not one of those.

Albert