Newbie Help - Climbing Manhattan Euonymus

[Christine_P]

Hi Everyone!

I'm a new gardener… last year was my first year, and I probably have a lot to learn!

I planted climbing Manhattan Euonymus plants (large ones on a trellis) last year, at the direction of the local garden store. They said they would hold up OK in a large container on a roof, in my Hoboken, NJ climate. Unfortunately, the winter was super rough this year, and the plants now look sad, and half dead.

I'd like to know if anyone has any tips on the following:

1) What could have caused this? Just the temperature, or could they have a disease? They are normally a beautiful green, and are now spotted and not healthy looking.
2) They appear to be budding, so do you think they will regrow leaves?
3) When should I begin to fertilize?
4) Also, last year they started sprouting new growth all out of the bottom, fanning out. It isn't growth that is near the trellis to climb. Should I trim this and what is the best way to do so? (you can see this in the last photo)

I've attached a few photos of the plants.

Thank you so much for your help. I need it!
-Christine

[rainbowgardener]

Plant leaves can get "scorched" and burned looking from too much sun when they are not used to it or from being frozen and the two can look kind of similar. If I didn't know the circumstances, I would think yours was sunscalded - white and crispy. Frost burned often is more brown and wilty. However, knowing the circumstances that it just came through a tough winter, we can go with frost burned.

Either way euonymus is a very tough plant and difficult to kill. It will come back, but as you have seen, often comes back from the base. Wait until you see what is living and what isn't and then trim off all the dead stuff. You may have to trim off some of the most horizontal stems too, but hopefully you can just train some of them up the trellis.

Don't start fertilizing until the plant is well recovered and actively growing. Euonymus requires very little fertilizer anyway and is very low maintenance.

[change of art]

I'll be curious how your Euonymus has done as spring has progressed.

I've got two massive trellis hedges on either side of my garage double doors. I've had it for 10+ years. Every year, I'm surprised when it goes all yellow-white and dead looking at the end of the winter. (Weird, because it looks mostly nice & green all winter.) But it's always sprung back to life pretty quickly. But, it's taken SO much longer to green up this year that it's got me worried...

Feels like it's at least two months 'behind' schedule. I've been hearing "be patient" a lot this year; to not panic or try anything unusual just yet... I hope yours is doing well by now. Crossing my fingers for all of us Euonymus caretakers!

[change of art]

P.S. I"m in Chicago, in a fairly sheltered tiny yard – with decent sun. For more than a decade, the leaves on my hedges have turned this same pale yellow color at winter's end. Then, they're sort of 'forced off' by the new, green growth. It looks just awful, but when the new growth comes in, all the crunchy whitish leaves fall to the ground, and the plant grows like mad – thick and lush. (Hoping that happens soon...)

As someone else mentioned, this plant can take a lot of pruning. After a few trims, you'll learn where to cut to keep it from getting too leggy. It really is a magnificent plant!

[Terrace gardener]

Very curious how this all worked out in Hoboken...
I'm looking at the same scenario in midtown this Spring. The same plants overwintered well for 2 years - not so much this year.
Did your plants come back or did you need to throw them out?