Is my shrub dead? Erysimum

tom_noton

So me and my girlfriend are relatively new to gardening and we gave this shrub a hard cutting in late March. British weather wasn’t on our side and a couple of frosts since. Should we expect new growth yet. They went mad the year before and they were pretty big, about 4 feet high. There were signs of new growth pre frost but that seems to have died off. Any tips? Cheers 

Tom

rachelQrtJHBjb

Erysimum are relatively short-lived. If yours went "mad" flowering last year it probably looked worse for wear after the winter, if not dead. 

You can see if it comes back but I would pop to the garden centre and buy a new one. I replace mine each year to keep the plant looking fresh in the border.

robairdmacraignil

Similar experience here with Erysimum being short lived and the one in the photo looks dead to me. I have trimmed them back when they look bad to encourage new growth but have tried to just remove dead material and they seem to need a few living stems to be left continue growing to have a chance to recover. I have read that many just grow them as biennials because they do not look great after a couple of years flowering. If you get a living one again they are easy to propagate from cuttings and I usually have a number of these getting started in a shady sheltered container from bits I accidentally cut off the ones in the garden just stuck in compost.