it will be hard to differentiate between a cold event.. and transplant or planting problems ...

i would not be too concerned with internal leaf loss ... in other words.. the tips with the buds still look good ...

see if you can see the buds... if they remain green and hard.. you should be all set ... vs black and mushy ....

insert finger and check soil moisture also...

where they fresh fall stock.. or late fall bargain plants ...

ken

Thanks Ken, yes I see buds and they look good. I planted 100 shrubs around my pool area this fall, everything was watered and mulched. Moisture is good, I do not over water. They looked great right up to our hard freeze event a couple weeks ago. My gardenias even look better. I had my concerns when I planted these distyliums, as most are zone 7 or 8 at the min.

I believe zone 6 is overly generous for these shrubs and even Bailey Nursery (the breeder/grower) lists them to only z7. Ones I've seen here (z8) have experienced foliage burn with exposure in the mid 20's. I would expect some recovery, although that recent a planting may not have allowed adequate time for root establishment before the cold weather and that could contribute to the cold damage.

I only planted 8 of these, not a huge deal if they don't make it. I can return them. I'm solid 7b and these were marketed as 6, which I think is generous as well. These are becomming popular in my area. We'll see I guess.

As gardengal48 says, newly planted shrubs often struggle the first winter. It took me several tries years ago to establish oakleaf hydrangeas (we had colder winters then), and none of the fall planted ones would survive the winter. Now they are well established and had no dieback after the 16 below night we had during the polar vortex a year or so ago.

Leave them be. They'll pull through. Likely only the leaves have gotten burnt, but it's really hard to assess the damage from just a photo. If you do decide to pull them and replace. Make sure you replace in Spring and not Fall. During warm periods in winter, give them a drink of water, if you have been dry.

Just leave them. They should grow back this spring, if not remove the damaged branches.

Looks like cold damage to me. September may very well have been early enough that these were able to undertake significant root elongation after planting, not have been limited to drawing moisture from their original potting soil based root masses only.

This shrub was selected by Plant Introductions (founded 2007 by M Dirr and partners) which I don't remember presenting themselves as a subsidiary of Bailey Nurseries when looking at their web pages in the past (they do now). Probably the "abandoned hog farm" is in Georgia and the plant was not tested elsewhere before being described as hardy to Zone 6b (including on the Plant Introductions web site) - with this assessment being based on information other than that derived from sending it around to other locations for multi-year trials. Nothing they have selected can be more than 10 years old unless plants already under development elsewhere were brought to the current facility in 2007.

Thanks for the replys everyone. They seem to be okay for now, we had wet weather and warm temps this week. I think they will be okay. I've had this happen to gardenias and tea olives in the past and they pulled through. I'll keep everyone updated as we get into spring.

Great news.

Here in zone 7a I feel we are on the northern edge of Blue Cascade's hardiness. Mine have gotten burnt in bad winters (even after establishment), BUT they usually recover fairly quickly. I just cut away the burned branches. The flowers often get killed by late frosts here too.

I do believe yours should dig in and get established this season. Hopefully it will be much stronger going into the next winter.

Distylium suffered significant freeze damage in Texas last Feb when it got into the teens for days. Some survived but took a long time ( into June) to recover and others regardless of age died. Texas learned that a layer of freeze cloth can make an amazing difference when it dips inot low 20's. and lower.

Came here for obvious reasons… I’m in Asheville - zone 6B/7a and we just endured the polar vortex!hoping mine will recover - I am wondering if I should wait to prune the burnt leaves/ stems until Spring or go ahead sooner than later to do so??? Thanks everyone

Wait on the burnt Asheville planting until well into next year's growing season to give it time to show you where it is going to grow back from and where it is not. Or decide this plant is not for you and start over with something hardier.

This is the second year we’ve had significant foliage damage in Athens, GA (zone 8). The dead leaves will not drop off on their own. You will have to pick and prune them off by hand once new foliage emerges in the spring. As a professional, I won’t use these in future projects. Clients complain.

Dystillium, like most shrubs are more tender when first planted. I always say, ''Expect a whole zone more tender when you newly plant or transplant". After two years or so, they should be well established and better able to weather the cold plunges. But even fully established Dystillium can have their most recent foliage burned from the cold. They'll look bad until new growth emerges.

I am in Zone 8a Birmingham, AL and we have 35 Coppertone Distylium shrubs. They were hit by the Dec hard freeze and leaves are all very dark brown. Wondering if we have lost them or if they will come back. They were planted April 2019.

Check condition of stems of Birmingham planting to judge if they are going to releaf - if green and supple then recovery is implied. If instead everything is brown and brittle then outlook not too good. Also what I said about the Asheville planting applies here also - if you had yours burn up once it's going to happen again. So maybe you should think about yanking them and using something hardier instead.