too far to focus on such.. to ID ...

but it is not uncommon ... when winter sneaks in full bore... and freezes the leaves.. before they fall off ...

i have seen it happen on privet.. forsythia.. lilac.. etc ... and i am in adrian mi ...

get a leaf closeup.. and i bet we can ID it ...

ken

when a plant is hyper-fertilized..

and instead of slowing down in late fall..

its growing so fast and furious.. that it is hit with winter.. before fully hardening off .. as noted in the previous answer ...

i am wondering if there is lawn in those alcoves.. and some fert jockey juiced the shrubs with high nitro fert ... not good, if so ..

i also have a couple evergreen daphne.. which remain green most winters.. but with this years EXTREME cold.. will be nudie by spring.. as these will.. when those leaves fall off ...

one thing for sure.. they arent oaks ...

ken

If you could get a better picture guessing wouldn't be needed. A close up of the twigs and buds would help. You are probably going to have to get out of that car.

Look up the term marcescence, and note examples of species which display this trait.

Hamamelis vernalis and Carpinus betulus are two plants suitable for hedging that behave this way. You mentioned Pin Oak - yes, and so does Shingle Oak. Sugar Maple and American Beech act this way, to a certain extent. Makes them easy to spot in a winter woodland.

I agree with floral - get out of the car and get some closeup images of the leaves, stems, buds.

Well, itâÂÂs not an evergreen but just some sort of deciduous shrub with dead leaves that are hanging on, sort of like the leaves on a Sawtooth Oak tree. ItâÂÂs almost impossible to know what species and cultivar of shrub it is since it has been pruned, and itâÂÂs dormant. I have some Wine & Roses Weigelas that are getting shovel pruned this spring. In my yard they keep their dead leaves all winter until the new leaves sprout. And the leaves on your shrubs are similar in placement along the stems as my Weigelas. So⦠my "blind shot in the dark" guess is some type of cultivar of weigela.

i have plenty of evergreen shrubs.. here in MI.. THAT LOOKS EXACTLY LIKE this DUE THE THE INTENSE COLD SNAP ... [well.. a couple anyway...]

e.g. my daphne ... and i am wondering.. if they are going to make it this winter ... not that those in the pic are daphne ...

rule out nothing .. until see get some better pix ...

ken

Attached is a close-up of the shrub. I think the wind-chill was about -20 when I took this photo. Any thoughts? Thanks!

Attached is a close-up of the shrub. I think the wind-chill was about -20 when I took this photo. Any thoughts? Thanks!

{{!gwi}}

Hard for me to tell but I've seen lilacs hold leaves if zapped by late season freezes.

Still not enough definitive information there.

If it gets warmer, collect a stem or two from these plants, and take them back to friendlier climes and get some good clear images of the leaf arrangement, buds, leaves, etc.

It almost appears that these plants have opposite arrangement of leaves, but it is tough to make that out absolutely.