Damage ranges from a marginal scorching of leaves to complete killing of plants.
It is often difficult to differentiate winter injury from disease, insect, or chemical injury. Winter-injured plants will often leaf out normally in the spring only to collapse after stored food reserves have been totally used up by the plant. Occasionally, damage does not become apparent until 1 or 2 years after the injury occurred. This type of injury may occur on native or exotic plants although the latter are usually more vulnerable. A result of late spring frosts can be the death of expanding flower buds on species such as magnolia or lilac, or the death of young, succulent, actively growing shoots.