This question can't be answered in general. Do you have a specific shrub in mind?

That's exactly right...we would have to know what kind of plant you're talking about before we can say what's "normal" or not. We can help with the ID if you include a photograph or two.

and where are you .. that shrubs are leafing out????

'shrub' is one of the most mis-used terms in the garden world.. so as they note above.. we need to ID it first ...

but let me assure you its NOT uncommon..

and no one should be fertilizing nor amending.. IN WINTER ... unless you are some tropical US paradise ...

ken

The Master Gardener info desk here routinely gets questions from folks asking what's wrong with their rose bushes because they are leafing out with reddish-brown new leaves!

And Ken the OP is in Alabama, and I hate to tell you this but our natives here are putting out new leaves now and the quince and the plum trees are blooming...

hey FF

i figured as much..

but i NEVER fert.. before ALL possibility of frost is gone ... no need to super charge too early in spring.. only to have fresh excess growth die because the temp fell 3 degrees ...

i understand this is a up north thing... i always presume we have a broad menagerie of cowards across many zones ... who read things.. and never post/reply ... so i do tend to shotgun it a bit .... sometimes getting caught in overly broad comments ..

that and the facts.. that i have never found a shrub that really 'needed' fertilizer [not counting rhodies and the those that need the acid shift] .. and feel free to read that.. its a waste of money to fertilize shrubs .... but that is opinion ... [especially if that shrub has been there for years ...]

anyway.. how did you intuit AL?? its not on their members page.. and not in the OP ...

ken

ps: being a fan of WORDS MEAN THINGS ... i never realized .. until this post.. that you warm zone peeps.. actually 'start' the garden season in WINTER ... literally.. it does register in my world of words mean things.. lol ... i might have to have a few adult beverages.. to mull this one out.. lol...

ps: oh and yeah.. "bite me" on spring budding out now ... .. i will talk about mine in 60 odd days or so .. lol ..

Oops - I was reading rhizo's location!

It was very weird to come from the NE to CA and discover, as you point out, that we do start things in winter here! It took me years to understand the flow and the subtle differences in a world that at first struck me as being 'seasonless'. Now I see the seasons here as just as pronounced and defined as I did in New Jersey and New York state. But it took a while...

And the only thing that I ever fertilize here are roses and vegetables, and even the veggies mostly just get compost. And every year I have fewer and fewer roses as I keep thinking of plants that I'd rather have or things that I'd rather be doing with my time than pruning roses!

roses were my first love ...

and to do it right.. in MI ...

start the 4 -6 week feedings 6/1 .. quit by 9/1 .. so they go dormant instead of bolting in fall [this topic] ...

the deadheading.. the pruning for shape and form ...

the month long process of cutting every one of them down.. burying in mulch and covering with a rose cone in MI ...

when it was my only plant in suburbia.. what the heck.. but as my garden grew into other things.. what a PIA ...

i brought a couple to the country when i moved ... but apparently they have no sense of humor about thriving in sand.. and now i have 2 shrub roses left..

what was the topic??? ... lol .. [i think this will make a great new post ... in the perennial forum.. check it out ...]

oh.. i remember.. i recall something.. years ago.. and i doubt i can put it into words.. but on the same query.. someone told me a leaf lacking chlorophyll tends red.. and the reason they are red at bud break.. is that they are growing so fast.. the plant just cant keep up .. but given a few days or so.. they all turn green ... as the plant catches up with the early bolting .. presuming a green plant of course... and its simply sunshine which is needed to create the chlorophyll ... it normal ...

anyone want to run with that.. and correct it if needed????

ken

If it's a Red-leafed photinia, nothing's wrong at all!