By Barrie_1
United Kingdom 
i had a mature - 3to4 year old bottle brush plant bought as a present last year and after taking advice i decided to leave it in the pot on the patio and covered it in a fleece to protect from frost - all the leaves have now died and i fear itthe plant may be dead - is there any way to try and make this plant leaf and flower again - there are no buds on the plant and it is now April?
8 Apr, 2010
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Scrape a little bark off of the lower branches to see if they are still moist and green inside. If not, give it a decent composting. If so, wait until it starts to sprout, then just cut off anything that doesn't sprout, In the meantime, make sure that you don't overwater it, since so many of the leaves are dead. A light feeding of a low phosphate fertilizer will help it to recover faster, but don't apply until after the sprouts are at least 5 cm long.
Good luck on this, I hear that it was a memorable winter!
9 Apr, 2010