I was just about to post the same topic concerning my butterfly bushes. I also have buttonbush but it seems ok, although it was barely starting to leaf out. My butterfly bushes on the otherhand look pretty sad. After they put out so much growth in the heat weeks ago I cut them back to about a foot tall. The past two nights it has gotten down to the low thirties upper twenties. All their new growth is either completely wilted or shriveling up. I'm hoping it just killed the new growth and not the whole plant. That way I can just cut them back further once new growth starts again. It doesn't help any that it has been so dry in addition to the dramatic temperature drop. Weird thing is that many of the plants I thought would have issues with the recent freeze... like hosta... look perfectly fine.

Sorry about losing the new leaves on your plants, Catherine!
With buttonbush and spicebush both being plants native to eastern North America, they've got to be tough enough to recover.
Let us know how they do.

Sherry

Sorry about the late freeze. We've been very lucky so far this year and haven't had one. We had an "Easter Freeze" in 07 following an early spring so everything had fully leafed out and then it dropped down into the teens and the trees and bushes all had dead leaves hanging on them. That year everything in my yard leafed out again including my spicebushes. I didn't have a buttonbush then but surely it will leaf out also and hopefully still bloom. I do remember losing some irises that year. I had some survivors but many were mushy after they froze and rotted. And a neighbor lost a Japanese Maple.

This is the third night in a row I have covered all my budding perennials in Minnesota. Everything looks pretty good and the temps are finally getting warmer again tomorrow. Sorry about your freeze damage...hopefully everything is resilient!

I have a button bush question. I started two from seed last year. One I potted and brought indoors and the other I left outside...we had a very mild winter so it should have survived. Neither of them look like they are doing anything...do they start slow in colder zones?

Thanks in advance, Tony

Hopefully all my bushes that had their leaves frozen have the reserves to put out another set of leaves. Fingers crossed.
Thanks everyone.