By Rogerturner
Lincolnshire,
United Kingdom 
We have a common type of Campsis,
It began to lose its leaves (surprisingly to us) about a month ago and now is completely bare and a lot of the twiggy branches are dead and just snap off - is the whole thing dying, should I trim it back to where I think there is live growth or should I just leave it alone until spring and hope? It was originally a cutting from my daughter`s free growing plant in open garden, ours is planted along a south facing wall, by the house on a trellis at the corner of the building, could it have caught a draft?It coped with the extremes of last winter OK, one last thought, it is planted on a paved terrace, where we removed one paving stone, we have watered it fairly regularly and it has had some miraclegro type feed
7 Oct, 2010
Answers
Sorry to be so long replying to your comment to my question- lost the website!
However, events have moved on spring is here, I didn`t cut back in the winter, but I am told we had minus 21 degrees here (Lincolnshire) and to our surprise the Campsis, is growing great guns from the base, so I will cut it back now.
We lost other things in the garden like a Bay bush we had had for years and a Mimosa, which went through the previous winter OK, but a Fig we have had for years looked dead, but now is showing signs of life in spurs growing from the base - would you recommend cutting back on what is obviously dead, so it will not waste its energy trying to push sap up dead stuff?
26 Apr, 2011
Yes - dead material should always be removed from any plant, once you're sure its dead, its serving no useful purpose at all.
26 Apr, 2011
Thank you Bamboo, just the answer I was looking for!
26 Apr, 2011
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This is one of those plants that needs pruning in mid winter, when its dormant, by mid February, so suggest you wait and prune it back then, removing anything obviously dead, and hope it recovers and grows again in Spring.
7 Oct, 2010