Hey Wildflower, I think you just don't realize the level of desperation people and plants way up here reach by this time of winter - LOL. Actually, this has been an incredibly mild January for SE MN 40s yesterday and 37 when I passed the bank clock today. It's just not supposed to rain here in January (he said happily). I think I may have to try Molly's trick. All my dormant rootballs made it through last winter in my cool basement with minimal watering but with a little every 2 weeks this year they have even maintained pale shoots. Maybe I'll have to sort thru the buckets (20 odd) to find a couple of shoots from those I really want to multiply. What fun. Will

In my experience, very green growth, especially if late season growth, will often just die off down to where the plant can take the amount of alive branches per amount of moisture or size of root ball. I lost some 4 feet on a brug that had mostly green stem, it just died back and right below where the dead branches are is nice healthy wood with small green buds.

Mamaspud, Even at low temperature (garage in winter months) the microorganisms like bacteria, fungi and algae thrive in water that has organic matter in it. Algae are relatively harmless but bacteria and fungi may start a nasty disease due to which the stem may rot and the come spring the plant may fail to root. The rot usually beagins at the bottom of the cutting (one which is rubbing to the bottom of the container). "Bucket o Brugs" method raises the stems and prevents mashing of the stems. I have adopted this idea and have gone a step further by adding vary small quantity of antibiotics. Last year I used expired "cipro" (10 microgram/ml) and a dab of "lotrimin" to the bucket o brugs. I changed water every month, and added the antibiotics as before. I did not notice any rot (except for minimal algal growth) in the bucket with antibiotics. For the purpose of comparison I also had a bucket o brugs without any antibiotics (water changed on monthly basis), this had a lot of slime accumulated on the bottom and sides and 3 out of 10 stems were very mushy at the bottom, they did not develop healthy bunch of roots. I used cipro because i had some (1 year past their expiry date...but still had plenty of potency, for experimenting with plants it may be OK but definitely not to be used for serious treatment, remember that it is "expired" DO NOT USE on humans and animals unless advised by a competant authority - your doctor or your pet's vet). Lotrimin cream (OTC) came from the general stash in medicine cabinet, I made a realtively dispersed suspension by vigorously shaking a dab of the cream to some water in a ziploc bag and added this suspension to the bucket. My conclusion: Antibiotics help cuttings survive in the bucket.

Thanks for the quick reply! I'm in Minnesota, zone 4a. It is getting full sun all day, and the water comes from an underground irrigation system that sprays from the top of the slope. The boulders I planted it by are soaked when the irrigation cycle is done, but I dont know how much water the plant has actually received. I need to go out there after a sprinkling some day and test it. I'm suspicious that the slope isnt getting as much water as I'd like as the sprinklers may be spraying over it. The other plants on the slope look ok, though. It was planted about six weeks ago, and I transplated it two weeks ago after noticing it looked bad. I havent done a bark test yet. I've given it several good soaks but it hasnt changed it's appearance. Such a bummer! I have a purple smoke bush coming from bare root dormant stage that looks better! :( Does that help?