I would forego the trimming and fertilizing, and stick with the 'just wait' part of the plan. With warmer weather, you should get new leaves, and everything will look much better...

A little compost/organic matter/liquid seaweed might help things along, but fertilizing a stressed plant with a synthetic fertilizer can be counter-productive.

How old are your plants? If they are very young, some may not make it, but camellias are generally pretty tough and I'm guessing that if you're in VA, you probably planted cold-hardy varieties?

Hopefully, the green under the bark means all is well, but camellias do things pretty slowly, so you just need to be patient.

Good luck!

My camellias are: April Tyrst, April Kiss, Silver Waves, Tom Knudsen. I grew Tom Knudsen while in N. Virginia with good results. I'm one hour south of that now.(little warmer).

The camellias are about 12" high with about 1/2" trunk (I'm guessing about 2 yrs old).

Thanks for the info on seaweed fertilizer. I'll try it. The azealas took a hit, too and I'm taking a "wait and see attitude".

You've got some good varieties, so I'm cautiously optimistic. It's a double-whammy for them to try to get established in a new garden, then get zapped with that kind of cold, but they are hardy varieties and I wouldn't bet against them.

There are lots of different products with seaweed in them- the stuff I use is a local brand, but it really seems to help with seedlings and established plants. My azaleas like it too. It isn't a 10-10-10 type of fertilizer- it's a combination of seaweed and humic acid. I would steer clear of anything with lots of nitrogen for a stressed plant. though.

Are you seeing any new leaf buds yet? Once your plants start leafing out, you should be able to see if you've got any dead wood that needs to be trimmed away. I would wait until next spring to do any shape-pruning, however. (Hopefully next winter won't be such a doozy.)