By Denbobarney
United Kingdom 
We have an 11 yr old ceanothus on our south facing garage wall next to a fairly busy road. It has thrived (it is about 7 ft tall and has a span of about 12ft) until this winter; now about 80% of it is brown and crumbles - pretty dead looking basically. Once all the dead is cut out it will look very sad. Will it grow back from the base if we cut it right down to the ground? Or might new growth come through on the apparently dead branches? One last question - if it's dead full stop, how big a job will digging it out be :-( ? Appreciate any help, thank you.
12 Feb, 2011
Answers
I asked this question about three weeks ago and Bamboo kindley responded with much the same advise. After having my first full day in the garden today I noticed that my Ceanothus although looking very brown has flower buds forming on most of the stems. Mine is also about 10 years old now. I think as Bamboo says wait until April and then access the damage, you may be pleasantly surprised.
Thanks Bamboo
12 Feb, 2011
Thank you both - it's lovely to find a website where people are so friendly and helpful:-)
25 Feb, 2011
You are very welcome
25 Feb, 2011
You could wait till April and see what the new growth is like, how much of the plant is actually dead, and then cut back, but at 11 years old, that's a pretty good age for Ceanothus - these are not long lived shrubs, so if you have to replace it, then don't feel too badly. Will be a pretty big woody root system in place I'd think.
12 Feb, 2011