I know I keep saying this, but be patient! After the swap yesterday I decided to take a a loppers out to go after a couple of viburnums and a purple smokebush that I was sure were goners, except for the suckers at the base. I scratch tested each branch before cutting and son of a gun if most of them aren't green! I looked closer and there are buds.

My big apple tree has maybe 20% of the leaves it had last year. It's hideous! This is ladder work that I'm going to take my time with.

I think a lot of things are slow to wake up this year with the wild weather. Do trim off what you've confirmed is dead, but leave what's alive. It may take you a few years of pruning to restore to a shape you're happy with. With what the trees have been through they need all the leaves they can keep to get healthy.

When you do prune, trim to an outward facing bud or leaf to keep the bowl shape.

I hope this helps and know that I feel your pain!

Barb

Patience.

Thanks for the help!

Diane

Diane - Can you post a couple of pictures the show the branching structure so we can give better advice on correcting for the damage.

For now, if it's clearly dead, prune it off.