The early snow last November has had an impact on many popular shrubs. Varieties that are usually hardy throughout the winter, were hit hard by the extremely low temperatures.
Take for example, the Fuchsia shrubs shown in Figure 1 and 2 below.

Figure 1: Dead leaves on Fuchsia shrub. Killed by early snow

Figure 2: Close up of damaged branch and leaves

The leaves were still on the shrubs when the snow hit. In normal circumstances, the leaves would have fully dropped from the plant before any snowfalls and the shrubs themselves would be dormant. However, the unexpected early freezing temperatures killed all the remaining leaves.

However, all is not lost! In most cases, the plant itself is still alive.
In Figure 3 below, you can see what the approach has been. All the Fuchsia bushes have been pruned back, quite severely. The top half of the stems have all been removed, with the dead leaves. In certain instances, some weak branches would have been cut out completely. These plants will now produce new shoots in late spring and will be flowering again in late summer.

Figure 3: Pruned Fuchsia shrubs

Fuchsia’s were not the only species of plant effected. Another example is shown in Figure 4 below.

Figure 4: Snow damage to Choisya ‘Sundance’

In all of these cases, don’t assume that the plant is dead. The method of judging if there is life still in the plant, is to cut one of the stems – by half or more. Look at the cut and if there is a thin line of green around the inside the outer stem, then the plant is still alive. You can then just prune back all the stems. Remembering
to always prune back to a bud!