hmmmmm....

i am in MI ... its been one of the coldest .. longest early springs in my 5 decades ... i would not give up on anything yet .... give them at least another month ...

and that was preceded with a VERY cold and miserable winter ... and if anything caused die back or death.. it was winter ...

i highly doubt.. that fall pruning had anything to do with it ..

bottom line there ... blame mother earth.. not yourself .. lol ...

i am still mystified what is in tipton .. lol ....

did you apply any late fertilizer.. after pruning???

its just too early to tell you what to do ....

ken

I cut/broke a couple brown branches to see if there was any sign of life...they're crispy. I'm not sure if a hard pruning at this point might revive them or kill them.

To answer your Tipton question :), it's a group of privately-held companies owned by someone who lives there. (Don't want to post his name.)

I'd prune them back to live wood and they should sprout back with no problems. Ninebark seem to be pretty vigorous in my experience.