I have a Grevillea victoriae that I bought 2 years ago. It’s about 2 ft tall and is in a pot with bagged soil and sand added for better drainage. It hasn’t bloomed much, but it was trying. This year it has a lot of frost damage, and I’m not even sure it’s alive.
When can I expect to see new growth? Should I prune off the damaged areas and cross my fingers?
The usual rule of thumb about winter-damaged plants is to scratch the surface of a branch or stem with your fingernail to see if there is green underneath. If there is, that is a good sign. Then, you should give the plant until late June or early July to show signs of resurgence from the damage. I will include below an entire newsletter item on this topic from Plant Amnesty’s Cass Turnbull:
January 2009 e-mail newsletter: Is Your Frozen Shrub Dead? by Cass Turnbull
“After an extraordinarily cold winter in Western Washington, many garden owners will want to know what to do about the damage to many of our not-completely-hardy shrubs. With many of our broadleaf evergreens, it’s common for their leaves to turn brown or black and eventually fall off. The plants themselves are probably still alive. To check, use a hand-pruner blade to peel back a little bit of the “skin” to see if the cambium layer just beneath is alive (green) and not dead (brown). If alive, it’ll probably flush out with a new set of leaves. So don’t panic if you shrub looks dead. Wait and see. How long? By June you will have an answer.
“By then, those that can put on a new set of leaves will have done so. If you can’t stand the sight of the stricken brown shrub until June, try running your hands along the branches to knock the brown leaves off. Then, the plant might seem to be deciduous, not dead. By the end of August, the final report will be in. Freezing weather sometimes does internal damage that doesn’t show up until after the stress of the summer “drought”. A shrub may look okay through June and July, but then, while it is pumping H2O like crazy trying to keep up with the heat demand in August, some portions can collapse, and you will see die-back. (The non-scientific explanation is my own and may be a little, well, anthropomorphic.)
“Many evergreen shrubs, such as escallonia, that suffer freeze damage, will die from the tip back. These shrubs respond well to radical size reduction which in this case means big ugly cuts to the point of green wood. The plants will “break bud” just below your cuts and many new green-leafed shoots will rather quickly grow out to hide the cuts and provide you with a “new” plant by the end of the growing season.
“Often, (for example, in the case of choisya), branches will split, break or splay flat to the ground due to snow loading. Get your loppers out and whack everything back to 4″ to 6″ off the ground. Yes, it’s really Okay. I promise. I have done this thing many times. As soon as the growing season begins, the majority of cut plants will spring into action. As the renovated shrubs grow up, it is advisable to pinch them back every so often, to encourage branching and thicken them up. ‘Pinching’ means a very light heading, just nipping the end bud of each branch with your fingernails or hand-pruners.”
You may find this link to a Northwest grower of Grevilleas of interest, too.
On another topic, I’m curious about the mixture of potting soil and sand you are using for your Grevillea victoriae. If you were to add sand to most Seattle-area garden soil (which tends to be clayey), you would end up with poorly draining concrete-like soil. I would assume that potting soil which already has perlite or something similar in it for drainage and would not need an addition of sand. Are you planning to move the shrub into the garden at some point? This is a substantial shrub–the mature ones I’ve seen are at least 6 feet tall by the same width. If you can find a place in the garden for it, it might fare better. As you probably know, plants in pots tend to be more vulnerable to extreme cold.