Snow is good for the plants, it acts as insulation. the ideal situation for plants is ground gets snowcovered in December And stays that way till melts in March.

The sparse snow we got this season means the plants lost their natural insulator and were at the mercy of the cold temps and winds. It was still a cold winter with some parts of the country seeing record colds. Thus what we view as mild (less snow) and what plants view as mild is totally different.

Similar situation.... I winter protected two Nantucket Blues this past winter. One survived with literally zero dieback and the other one died completely back to the ground. Same variety and winter protected the same way but had two totally opposite results.... Also has me scratching my head.

One that survived:

Was planted in May, had very thick canes by the time I winterized it.

One that died back:

I planted it very late in the season. Mid September if I remember correctly. The canes on the the shrub were thinner than a pencil. They were extremely waterlogged (squishy) when I removed the winter protection. The one that survived, didn't have this issue at all.

Theory:

I'm wondering if the combination of planting it very late in the season so not being well established and the shrub having extremely thin canes, it just wasn't capable of surviving the amount of moisture that was inside the winter protection cage?

Possible corrective action:

I'm thinking about putting a tarp over just the top of the cage to reduce the amount of water/snow that collects inside the cage?

The late planting (lack of establishment) and what sounds like poor vigor of the plant were definitely factors.

You shouldnt have to cover with tarp .

GG. I kinda get the theory on snow being a insulator. When it does snow, the snow I get (being so close to the water), is the cane breaking, wet snow that tends to splay things in the garden. I can see how fluffy stuff that is light. I don't know what is worse . Being wrapped in burlap/leaves or the heavy wet snow piled on it.

I will say this...the ones I wintered protected all the way to the top , it was so gosh dang wet on the winter protection, I actually removed them mid-late winter, knowing it was just too wet.....when I did the removing, I actually ended up removing 3 canes there were mush-wet rotted.

I ended up shovel pruning one of the dead to ground mac's and transplanted a rebloomer - have to see what the fuzz is all about.

The only variable I think was different last year was that we got a early snowfall - even before the plants went dormant. Snow load on the big fat Mac leaves actually snow loaded and broke a couple of canes. That is the only thing remotely I see that might have remotely caused for me, a all dead to ground winter kill situation I have observed on 75% of the hydra. we have.

I’m not sure I would use tarp but I guess you could try burlap (more breathable) and see if it makes a difference.

hyed..good idea..for me with all of this space..I could get one in bloom..enjoy it in a pot..then in the fall plant it out of the way and forget it..do this every year and create a nonblooming mac bed with just nice green leaves haha..

Heh Hyed. I did plant another LL tree this weekend ;-)

If it was me, I would have someone deliver ~the purple ones/varigated~ in nice pots and refresh them year round. The budget doesn't allow. Maybe I should buy the SILK ones instead.

I guess I could LOP off the top of the cones, which would make them domes, and just spray paint them ANY color I want too .

My local temps don't completely kill shrubs to the ground. Sure I expect some dried canes here and there, but having almost the full crop die back to the ground was quite a stunner of things to see or have. Nor expected - bearing what I considered was a extra mild winter.

Hey NW. Not sure if you saw my other thread. I shovel pruned one of my old macs. Wasn't even expecting the crown to be so big. I knew roots were going to be a struggle. The crown was the size of a small piece of log. About 2 feet wide x 15 in D and H. It took forever.....

afan, keep fighting the Macs , the’ll keep you young..BUT MOTHER NATURE ALWAYS WINS... TOO MANY GREAT HYDRANGEAS THAT BLOOM EVERY YEAR

The funny thing Hyed. Ahem. the grower you like so much, Baileys. The Baileys were the only macs that have blooms on them. The ES did not have any dieback and actually is full of buds with 3 blooms on it already. Bloomstruck did have some dieback, but not complete loss leaders. Has some blooms. just not a full shrub.

I think much of the damage in continental climates happens during the fall acclimation and spring deacclimation period. Plants not ready for the onset of cold weather or teased out of dormancy Too early. Then in zones 4-5 maybe 6 you’re also dealing with absolute minimum temps and snow cover makes a big difference. .

I did did an experiment this year. I cut stems off my bloomstuck and summer crush plants on New Year’s Day. Put them in a vase and they leafed out 90% of the way up. Plants are now dead nearly to the ground. So that damage happened after NYD. Maximum low temp before NYD was 0F. We had had a nice gradual fall.

Still deciding if I'm going to dig one more big bertha out.....still in awe of what I deemed a mild winter and the winter dieback we got. I looked at the ES. It's got 5 blooms on it and I stopped counting when I hit 50, but it has at least 50 broccolis as well. The ES sufferered maybe 5 dead stems but zero to the dirt dieback.