Ceonothus?

[sunnymay10]

Hi everyone,
the question mark was for the spelling, I was looking round the garden the other day and noticed the Ceonothus looks sort of greyish at the ends of the
branches, some of them half way along, and I presume this is frost burn.
As it flowers quite early is it too late to cut back the grey wood now?
It's not a huge bush I could cover it next year in case we have another hard
winter. So thoughts please on how to deal with it now, and what do other winters.

sunnymay

[Jeanied]

Ceanothus - hmmm - what has gone grey? The buds or the foliage or the wood? I was just thinking that the grey part may be the buds starting - if it was frost damage surely it would go black or wilt or something.

[sunnymay10]

Hi Jeanied,
most of the bush, well at least 3/4 has all the woody ends quite grey and nearly white
for a good part of the length, not just the tip.
So the whole bush gives the impression of burnt, frost or otherwise, if i cut it back hard, will it flower this year, presuming it's still alive, or does it flower on last years new wood.

sunnymay.

[Jeanied]

It flowers on the tips - I think this is one that can't be cut back too much into old wood. If you can bear it I would suggest you leave it until May and cut out the dead bits - it is one that you prune back after flowering in April. This hard winter may have been just that bit too much for it and you could lose the flowers this year so a bit of tlc may be in order!

[sunnymay10]

Thanks, might just leave it and see how it looks after the normal flowering period.

sunnymay.