Mary - What kind of hydrangeas do you have? I think my oakleaf hydrangeas look the worst. One looks completely dead. I can see some green leaves at the bottom of my big leaf hydrangeas which I covered every night but I'll be surprised if I see any blooms this year. My Annabelle hydrangea has several green leaves. I left it uncovered. They bloom from new growth so it should have some flowers this year.
My crape myrtles didn't have any leaves yet when we had the late freeze, so I'm hoping they weren't hurt. No new growth yet. One of them was completely bent over my driveway after the ice storm and I had to prune it back to be able to get the van out of the garage. I doubt that did it any good to cut it back in January when it was so cold.

They might have died back to the ground. I doubt you lost either entirely. You'll just have to wait a couple more weeks to see just how extensive the damage is. Good luck!

It's called Sun Goddess. Pink blooms with lime green leaves. There was an article in the paper today by Gerald Klingman of Ozark Gardens about azaleas and crapemyrtles.He says to wait til the end of May to see if they sprout. I'll do the same for the hydrangea.

Mary, It didn't get as cold here probably but my crepe myrtles were already leafed out and now they look dead. I scratched the bark and it's still alive. You may want to cut them back so if they come back they can put more energy into roots and recovery. It's their nature for the trunk bark to split when it matures so maybe that won't hurt the crepe myrtles.

I don't know much about Hydrangeas, I've only had one but am planning to try again. Here they tend to not bloom every year.

Nancy

I checked my crape myrtles today and found some little leaf buds finally starting to come out on one of them (my biggest one) even up high on the branches. I was afraid they might've died back to the ground. Still no growth on the other two. How are yours doing Mary?

Both of my oak leaf hydrangeas have growth coming out from the bottom only so far. I think the tops might be dead on those but I'm going to wait awhile before cutting them back just in case. Is your 'Sun Goddess' showing any life yet?

Nancy - Are your crape myrtles leafing out yet? The first year after I planted mine, it died back almost to the ground and didn't start growing again until the very end of May. I had planned to dig it up because I thought it was dead. It got a late start but then grew quickly and still bloomed great that summer.

I have inch long sprouts on the crapemyrtles so I cut them back. Hydranga has sprouts too but I'm waiting for a few weeks on those before cutting. It's just depressing.

Glad to hear they're alive. Hope we still get a few blooms.

My crepe myrtles are leafing out but it's like yours, high up on the branches. I didn't cut them back any this year and thought maybe I should go ahead and cut them back since they bloom on new wood and none has had a chance to grow yet. I'm still having back problems and haven't done any gardening yet at all.

Nancy