Hebes dead

[WeAreTheHeroes]

We look to have lost three hebes, I'm guessing due to the persistent cold weather given one had dead, frost damaged new growth. Two were low growing with red tinged leaves in the same bed which is fairly exposed, on clay and prone to waterlogging, but they'd been doing well for over 5 years. The other was a long leafed variety with maximum height 1 - 1.5m and was planted about 3 years old.

I've pruned all three in the hope this will kick start them to produce new growth, but it really looks as though only one of the red tinged ones has any signs of life. Could I have done anything to protect them?

I'm going to replace them with something else I think unless they do revive. Needs to be evergreen and hardy. Any ideas please?

No advice I'm afraid but solidarity - I've lost 4 Hebes this year! So annoying, they were lovely - well established, getting better year after year, and now they're all just a brown crispy mess.

Well I suppose a suggestion from me actually is Red Robins, do you like them? I have a few of them and they're amazing. The red leaves at this time of year are lovely.

I lost four too. I think the late prolonged hard frost was just too much for them. Sad though

I have a mountain pepper AKA tasmannia lanceolata. Lovely glossy leaves, nice shape, and with fruit and flowers. Also skimma - I haven't tried pruning it yet but should be easy to contain

My jasmine are dead, my lavetera is dead, my small rhododendron is dead. A few others too, I need a trip to the local nursery.

I’ve lost three, too! All established for over five years, and previously, appearing indestructible.

I’m also looking for alternatives with which to replace them, so will follow with interest.

Solidarity here as well, I had loads in two low hedges and a few others and they all look bad. I am going to wait a bit and see but I suspect I will end up pulling them out. I also encouraged my dd to put some in her front garden (200 miles away!) and hers look like they have gone to the cold weather too. I think it was that weather before Christmas

We have photinia elsewhere and I need something more compact really. I'll look at the mountain pepper and I'm also thinking of common myrtle too.

I've lost a Chinese witch hazel too, which was in a sheltered position. Got loads of bloody jasmine and honeysuckle which grow like billy-o but never flower as it doesn't get enough sun..

We have a whole shrubbery of them where I work, maybe 40 plants. Or at least we did, they've all gone this winter.

The flip side of this is that two acers, some evergreen compact azaleas, lilacs, daphne and broom have all survived. I need to check whether same nandinas are okay. The roses are fine too.

All of my hebes died this winter. I've replaced them with viburnums.

I have thought I've lost a Hebe in the past but it's come back to life. Is there any chance that yours will? I have 5 in the North West, they are at least 15 years old but I thought pretty indestructible?

I've lost 3 hebes, a viburnum, a lavender and a rosemary this winter. So frustrating. Any suggestions for low maintenance shrubs for clay soil in a windy garden?

@chipshopElvis that's why I've cut them back. But only one was showing any signs of any life.

Tbh I carefully selected the variety, went and picked them up from a nursery. Then planted them both in slightly the wrong place (aesthetically more than anything else) and probably should have given them a bit of a prune to stop them getting leggy.

I did prune mine, I've decided that was the problem although I thought they had plenty of time to recover before the cold weather.

Three of mine completely died, one more looked so awful I pulled it out as well. All were 10-15 years old, flowering their best last year, a final burst of energy?

I was just coming on to post the same thread 😭.

I've lost 3 globe Hebes (I'm assuming brown and crispy is dead? They were evergreen. A few green leaves but it's honestly looking 99% brown). Also a star jasmine and a ceanothus. I'm dreading tackling digging them out. First time in 6 years of living here I've lost anything. The Hebes looked like they'd been here years ☹️.

I've now been out and had a very close look. There are almost no retained leaves on any, different places in the garden probably sixty or seventy altogether. There are obvious twiggy growths that are dead (frosted) but they are very solid in the ground so I would say they don't have root rot. Almost all of them were grown from cuttings and are in the ground with fat old stems. They are probably three or four years old. I can definitely see some itty teeny weeny little leaves on some breaking through. One variegated one has loads on the main stems. So given that it would be an immense effort to get them out, I am going with trimming off the dead ends and seeing if they do break leaves over the next few weeks and fingers crossed for no frost.

I lost my huge Hebe over a decade ago when we had a similar extremely cold spell. Minus ten in my garden then. I haven’t replanted one, as although most of the time we don’t get such cold weather here (I am low level, pretty near the sea) , when we do Hebes don’t seem to cope .

Same here, we’ve lost around 8-10 from our new build front garden 😫. They were beautiful over the summer but they’d only been in around a year when we had the snow just before Christmas, so we’ve got lots of space to fill.

We also clay soil and v windy, so @blackteaplease if you have any brainwaves please let me know. Our neighbours have put some hardy rose bushes in so think we’ll follow suit.

Makes me feel a bit better to find out it’s not just us!

Think we have lost three but in same bed another is thriving. So keep an eye out for any growth and then cut back to that?

I was also coming here to post for advice on my dead hebes. Completely dried up with no sign of life. They're not coming back are they. Also a genista, halimium and diosma that looked lovely last year are completely dead with no signs of life. I also have some perennials that don't look like they are coming back, they should have sprouted by now shouldn't they? I want to rip them all out cos it's depressing seeing them like that but not sure if I should be leaving them longer just in case of a miracle. Don't know if i'm throwing money away to replant the same.

I've lost a hebe, a cistus and a ceanothus, plus a few smaller plants - it was a really hard winter, we had -9 in Essex which is unheard of. Plus of course the heatwave in July will have stressed a lot of plants out too.

I think all you can do is cut back the dead growth and see if there's any sign of life at the base. They're usually really hardy but if we're going to have more extreme temperatures perhaps we need to plant differently.

Don't give upon the star jasmine yet !I thought I'd lost mine in a bad winter several years ago but after I cut it back I left the stump in the ground and it eventually sent up new growth. It's back to its former glory now.

I lost a huge Hebe two years ago when it was -18 and a foot of snow here. It's regrown from the base and runners and survived this winter's -15.

I lost a lavender, a lavatera and a hebe although other lavenders and hebes survived. The dead ones all happened to start flowering again after the drought and heat of summer and carry on flowering right through November into December when they were hit by sub zero temperatures.
I suspect that's what did for them.