Pruning a frosted choisya

pineapplebroom

With a hot dry summer and then an extra hard frost, our choisya has been doing odd things (we are in south Norfolk).  November 2022 - full bloom, January - leaves burned by frost.  I would welcome advice as to how and when to prune.

Fairygirl

I wouldn't prune just now. Anything dodgy/damaged will give some protection to newer foliage lower down. Is it in an exposed site? That's when they tend to get more foliar damage, especially if stressed with climactic conditions.
If it was allowed to get dried out, that weakens them a bit. You may need to look at beefing up the soil to help it retain moisture if you often get spells of drought. The golden ones aren't as tough as the green ones either. 

Have you a photo? That will help 

bédé

The best time to prune is when you are in the mood.  

A good time to prune is after flowering.

Topbird

@pineapplebroom - I'm in mid-Suffolk and have exactly the same issue with both the choisyas in my garden and (I think) for exactly the same reasons.

I was planning to wait until it's reliably milder (perhaps the beginning of April) and then snip off the brown bits and give them a bit of a feed and TLC. They've never had this problem before (10 years old) and look a bit of a mess at the moment but, with temps forecast to be down to -5C this week, I agree with @Fairygirl that the frosted leaves will afford some protection to any unaffected foliage.

They will probably be a bit mis-shapen after the tidy up so I'll bring them back to shape with a good pruning after initial flowering.

earlydaze

I am in East Anglia and have same issue-- as a matter of fact was just recently commenting how many Choisyas I have seen that look like they wont recover- am waiting for late spring to see if I get any new growth..... 

pineapplebroom

My two choisyas have both been cut back hard for space reasons in the past so I am hoping to revive them successfully

Topbird

It's (vaguely!) interesting that 3 of us with the same problem are all based in E Anglia.

I wonder if that's because here we had such exceptionally high temps and an (ongoing) extreme drought (worse than most areas) and that definitely put many plants under extreme stress. We then had that very cold snap in December which gave us temps below what we would normally expect see here - and for a prolonged spell.

Being on the east side of the country we are, occasionally, affected by extremely cold air from the east / north east, and maybe what we had in December was a bit like a mini 'Beast from the East' without all the snow.

The B f t E caused significant damage to well established shrubs in my garden, including Viburnum Tinus - normally as tough as old boots but almost defoliated by frost / cold wind damage. I'd never seen that before and hope not to again. Made a full recovery though🙂

earlydaze

agree @Topbird- question now is if indeed the Choisyas are done for, will you replace with the same or not risk it again? 

bédé

A plant with qualities like Choisya is surely worth a wee risk.   I nearly gave up Rhododendrons after 1976, but I'm glad I didn't.

Topbird

Mine are definitely not done for @earlydaze. They are substantial 10 year old shrubs about 1.2m x 1.2 m and its only the top 6" of some of the branches that have been scorched. I prune mine hard every year after flowering so they are dense plants with a lot of year old growth lower down the stems. When I look lower down the stems there is lots of undamaged growth.

I hope yours are ok too but I wouldn't give up on them until at least June. I had some B f t E damaged shrubs that took until August to start sending our fresh growth.

I would definitely give them a second chance if you lose them.  It might be worth noting that the 'common' Choisya Ternatas are the ones affected in my garden (I only have the green one - not the yellow). The much finer leaved Choysia Dewitteana 'White Dazzler' is (for the moment at least!) undamaged (fingers crossed, touch wood etc etc). That also just happens to be the shrub I prefer🙂

earlydaze

@Topbird Mine is around 8 years old- but I can't see any signs of new growth. Unlike yours, mine is not regularly pruned so that might be the difference.  I will wait until June at least before I give up on it. As you say- my white dazzler is as happy as can be!  If my sundance is indeed dead, I am not sure if will replace like for like.... I think summer and winter extremes may be increasingly common.