It could be. It is also important to keep it well watered during fall and even winter. But during winter, you can just water once every week or once every other week. Especially when the winter is dry and the ground has not frozen.

It is possible that your plant will still bloom. There have been some reports of Nikkos that bloom on new wood out of the blue (pun intended, hee hee hee). Just wait and see. Also keep it well mulched, about 3-4" of mulch.

Do not worry much about the problem you had this year since your shrub is not established and may have had a rough time. NB should be able to handle winters in your zone so mulching would be the only winter protection I would use.

Do not prune it as I suspect there is no reason to do that. Cease fertilizing in July. Fertilizing it late in the growing season just makes the plant want to stay in 'growth mode' instead of going dormant as winter temperatures arrive. Leaves and stems can get zapped by the cold weather.

In your location, fertilize with 1/2 cup of manure, cottonseed meal or a general purpose chemical fertilizer in May and July only. Optional: coffee grounds, liquid seaweed, liquid fish (but stop in July too).

Thanks for the reply - I'll just keep it fed and watered and see what happens....

Typically the winters here aren't that bad (MD), but last year the temps dropped below freezing just before Thanksgiving and didn't come up again until March, it seems - unusually cold season, but with little snow. I'm surprised more things didn't die off since it's not what they're used to!

Thanks again.