I live in the edge of the zone for growing A. shirasawanum -- we rarely ever get frost and a cold winter night here is 40 F. Nevertheless, my plant seems to do pretty well, except for random twig dieback over winter. My problem and question is what to do (or NOT to do) with the leaves that cling on all winter. They look pretty ugly just hanging there dead, but I'm reluctant to remove them.

Any advice? Should I just leave them on and wait for the new leaves to push them off, or take them off manually. They aren't going to be protecting the buds from cold, that's for sure!