It should sprout. Most plants are late sprouting this spring, after the winter we had. One of my peony is just popping up. Blame the snow.

Thanks for giving me hope!! It's just that the rest of them on our street sprouted a couple of weeks ago and have full leaves now. I hope mine is just a little delayed...

Found the culprit, winter moth!!! Is it too late to do anything now? Is it worth spraying?

There are several threads here on winter moths, many with links to other sites that have additional information.

Here's one, or you can type "winter moths" in the box at the top and then click on the suggestions for looking for the term in New England gardnening.

My maples leafed out this week out except for my silver maple which is being eaten by bugs. It usually re-leafs by now so maybe the process is delayed by the cold. Good luck on your Japanese maple, I wouldn't give up on it if I were you it is quite pretty.

Terri

Thanks gardenweb friends! We sprayed the tree with Captain Jack's Deadbug Brew a couple of days ago and it seems to have taken care of the caterpillars. Shall just leave it alone now or do I need to give it anything else to help things along?

If it has been as dry around you as elsewhere in New England, give it a long, slow drink and make sure it has a light layer of mulch, though not within a few inches of the trunk. Maples tend to have relatively shallow roots, and yours doesn't need added stress right now.

Thanks for the tips! I didn't know they had shallow routes. When my mother in law was here she wanted to plant a flowerbed under the tree. While cleaning the flower bed she was pulling all these hairlike routes out in order to plant the annuals. (See picture 1) Do you think she damaged the routes badly?

What a gorgeous tree. I've seen a few that haven't leafed out this year but mine are okay. I had that happen to an Autumn Moon. It lost so many branches and I had to butcher it to get all the dead off in 2012 (top photo). I thought for sure it wouldn't make it. Look at it now!

Wow it looks great Glad to hear it came back. I hope mine does too. Here are some progress pictures. Something is growing but oh so slowly!

We have a couple of branches with leaves, the rest are coming... Slow progress but progress!!

Thanks so much for your quick reply Steve! We removed the lights back in May. Definitely will spray next year. The winter moth was awful. I hope it pulls through! I'm not sure why it seems to be dropping some leaves now maybe it's just because they are not very strong being secondary leaves? It's trying so hard and it's sad to see some of them falling off. We have the sprinkler set to every other day around 5 am in the morning. Thanks for the advice!

Hi Steve,

I was wondering if it's time to spray yet? Getting nervous about that winter moth with the weather being so warm! Also I notice my tree has a lot of die back. Is this worrying or is it a result of what it went through last year? What shall I do with the die back ? Leave it or prune it? When is it time to spray?

Thanks!

This came out from the URI Extension Service last week. It was dated March 4th.

"Winter Moth update from URI Extension Entomologist Heather Faubert:
"I'm afraid winter moth eggs will be hatching in March as they did in 2010 & 2012. The earliest hatch date recorded was March 21, 2012. I'm worried this year egg hatch could be even earlier. I set up tree wraps in 4 locations in RI, one in CT and several Massachusetts blueberry growers also set up tree wraps. The tree wraps encouraged female winter moths to lay eggs just below the tree wraps. I've removed the tree wraps at four locations and found hundreds of eggs to monitor. Winter moth eggs start out orange, but then turn blue a few days before hatching. Very handy for monitoring egg hatch! All eggs I've checked this week are still orange, but that may change next week with predicted warm weather.

For landscape trees it’s not important to control winter moth just when hatching, but for apple, pear, and blueberry growers it’s very important. Once eggs hatch, winter moth caterpillars wriggle into swollen buds and begin feeding. For apple & pear trees and blueberry bushes, swollen buds are primarily flower buds. Caterpillars crawl inside the flower buds and begin feeding. Once caterpillars are inside buds they are protected from insecticide sprays until just before bloom and by this time many flowers may have been damaged or destroyed, destroying the crop. Landscape trees, on the other hand, can withstand early winter moth feeding damage. To save landscape trees from being defoliated, insecticides can be applied after trees leaf-out, but while caterpillars are still small and before excessive feeding damage has occurred."

Here's the picture that came with it.

If you have valuable landscape trees that have had winter moth damage in the past, then look for the eggs. Once they start to turn blue that's when they are beginning to hatch. Personally, I would use Spinosad (Captain Jacks Dead Bug Brew) as a contact insecticide. It's OMRI certified organic. If you have a J Maple you still have another chance to get the caterpillars after they emerge from the buds.

Steve

How did the OPs tree turn out?

Just wanted to update! I am devastated!! Just got my arborist to come out and spray and it turns out they tree has a root problem. He said the roots are girdling and suffocating it :( Only has 10% chance of survival. I'm still praying it recovers. I am so sad. :(

Another update! We decided to give the tree one more year. So 3 years in total it has been in distress. After cutting some of the girdled roots last year, my tee is back in full bloom! I can't believe it. We are so happy. Just need to trim the die back and it will look gorgeous again.

Thanks for coming back with an update! It is definitely looking happier this year.

Wow, beautiful! Good to hear that root girdling doesn't have to be a death sentence for a tree if caught in time....