is this bunny damage?

[yesididit]

the shrubs in my front yard used to be nice and full and round, with one being triangle shaped. after this winter they arent anymore. the bottom foot of all of them is dead, looks like its been eaten away. is this bunny damage and is there anything i can do to help these poor things?

Comments

[squid_ink]

could also be squirrel or something systematic (do you use salt to de-ice in the winter?)

[yesididit]

i dont use salt for de-icing, its too harsh for my dogs paws.

[blindaurora]

I don't know, but it looks BAAAAAAAAD. I have many sqirels and bunnies, and while they like to make a meal of my tulips and marigolds, I have NEVER had them nibble on my bushes like that. Crazy!

[prettydark]

It looks like cold-damage. Did you have them bundled this winter?

[yesididit]

no, i've lived here for 5 years and never bundled them. i'm not familiar with cold damage so i googled and found this site:
http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/horticulture/DG1411.html

while we didnt have an abnormally cold winter (they're all cold in minnesota) but we did had a spring that couldnt make up its mind and repeatedly warmed to melt all the snow, and then froze and dumped 6-12" on us. it did this 3 times. the website said that pronounced fluctuations in temperature can be detrimental in spring or fall. the shrubs are also on the southwest side of my house which the website says is the least ideal placement due to sun scald and winter discoloration.

the site says i can fertilize in spring and water well thru the season, and to wait to late spring before pruning the brown/dead branches in case some buds survived.

i think that is most likely what hurt my poor shrubs. thanks!

[prettydark]

Glad I could help you narrow it down!

[martygreene]

tag removed!

you SHOULD be able to remove tags by simply deleting them from the list in the text-field. If that's not working, let me know and it *might* be an lj-wonky