Q: A few weeks ago, you said to wait for a few more weeks before pruning my winter-damaged evergreens. I still see no signs of the branches turning green. If the dead-looking areas are really dead, then there will be a lot of branches removed and there won't be much left on one whole side of the plant. How long will it take to fill in? Should I just replace the whole plant? What kind of care should I give them this summer?

A: There are many kinds of evergreens and some will fill in holes fast and others will not fill them in at all. Needle-leaved evergreens, like junipers, arborvitae, spruce and pine, have very few live buds on the areas of the branch that don't have green needles. Even on a normal day, pruning back past the green areas of these plants will create a hole that can take a long time to fill back in again.

The northern yews, boxwoods and hollies are much more forgiving because they have the ability to produce new growth from old branches that don't have green needles. It may take a while to fill in a dead hole, but they can do it.

If the green areas on your evergreens are showing signs of life, you will be able to determine how much of the brown area is still alive. If the branch is still green but the needles are brown, wait a few more weeks to see how much new growth appears. If the branch with the brown needles is dry and dead, then go ahead and prune it off.

Dead areas that when pruned out will leave holes smaller than six inches will fill in this year. Holes a foot across will take two years and larger holes may need to have the plant replaced. If one whole side of the plant is dead, you will have to decide if you want to replace it or plant other things in front of it. If more than half the plant is dead, plan on replacing it.

A plant that has a small hole will fill in without any special care. Plants with larger holes will benefit from some extra fertilizer this spring. Just follow label directions. Don't fertilize them after mid-summer to prevent any green tender growth going into the fall when it is more susceptible to cold damage.

I have seen a lot of dead appearing ground cover evergreens, such as euonymus, pachysandra and vinca. These plants are generally very resilient and should come back with just a few dead areas. Replanting a few new plants into the holes will be easy. Applying a lawn fertilizer that has no weed killers will speed up recovery of ground cover plants.

Pine trees often get dead needles in the wintertime. Most often this is due to salt damage rather than cold damage. In both cases, the brown needles fall off in the spring and new growth comes out as usual. Spruce trees that have the same damage from the same causes often don't send out new growth from the areas with brown needles and the branches need to be removed.

Other trees and shrubs besides evergreens were affected by the cold and the drying wind. I have seen lilacs and other shrubs with no flowers. Go ahead and do the normal pruning in the month or two after the normal blooming time. Flower buds should develop normally this summer and they should bloom next spring as usual. They don't need any special fertilizer or watering.

There are usually very hardy trees like hawthorns with dead branches. Other trees and shrubs have some branches with just a few new leaves instead of being fully leafed out. In all of these cases you can wait just a little longer to see if some buds will come out. In many cases, the damaged plant will not look good enough after it is pruned and will need to be replaced.

Email questions to Jeff Rugg at info@greenerview.com. To find out more about Jeff Rugg and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.