I have two in ground brugs, both are already showing signs of coming back. So those two I'm not worried about. It's the two I have in containers that has me concerned. We had a bad winter, snow, ice, etc...

The one pot stayed in the utility room all winter. I forgot and only watered it twice during winter, so it was dry as a bone, so I decided to put it in a bigger pot, yet cut holes in the bottom so the roots would have access to the ground. The pot is about 24" height 24" wide, when I took it out of the pot, I noticed that ONLY THE VERY BOTTOM had some roots that were still alive, maybe due to lack of watering, and very root bound. Been in that pot 3 years and always came back.

So am I now going to have to wait for those roots to work there way all the way through the 24" of soil before I can see signs of new growth since all healthy roots were at the very bottom of the pot?

And the other pot is about 36" high, it's actually an old trash can cut in half and used to make like a raised bed, bottom cut out too, but I'd say it's both raised and in ground sort of. It was not mulched :-( I got lazy and totally forgot. Again no signs of new growth on this one either. So I'm thinking the same with it too. I'm thinking that it's roots too must work their way all the way thru the 36" of soil.

Am I right in thinking this? Is it possible it still might come back? Our temps are just now reaching the 75's. Again, the other two in ground already have new growth, just waiting on the two that are kinda potted/in ground but nothing yet.

How far can I dig around in it safely without hurting anything to look for new growth? I'm thinking the winter possibly killed anything contained within the 36" of soil, but maybe, just maybe, beneath all that soil at ground level something may have survived. Could I be right? I hope this all makes sense.