"Paul Corfield" wrote in message
...
I have a number of perennial plants that have been ravaged by the S&S
brigade. The plants are in the borders and I assume their roots are
working away but there is no obvious green activity up top. I don't
really want to lose these plants but I am at the bottom of my gardening
learning curve and I'd like to know the most sensible way to try to
revive these plants. The options I can think of are :-

a) leave them where they are but feed them intensively and protect
from S&S attack and hope they recover.
b) dig them up, repot them, protect them from S&S attack and
provide due care and sustenance.
c) leave where they are, don't do anything special and hope they
recover next spring after winter dormancy. Obviously S&S Protection will
be required.

Any thoughts or comments - sorry for being a bit dim.

When you say "no obvious green activity up top" do you mean there is a green
stem but no obvious buds, or that there isn't any stem showing?

If all the stem and buds have gone there may well be nothing left for the
plant to generate new growth above ground.

I think that this kind of damage during the growing season could be the end
of them; it is a different situation from the planned die back of some
perennials over winter. Even then, most plants need some stem as the
starting point for next year's growth.

It would help to know what kind of plants we are speculating about :-)

I have some Nicotiana which are coming back from very little, but the ones
that are recovering did have at least some green stem left above soil level.

Cheers

Dave R