Question
Hi Jim.  We had very warm spring weather for several weeks and all our trees budded out, the leaves came on etc. and then we had a sudden hard freeze of several days.  Now the almost every leaf on our Japanese Maple, our Pear trees, our Ornamental Cherry tree, our Silver & Sunset Maples --- even the lilac bushes --- are all curled and brown.  

I assume they'll come back next spring, but will they recover this season or will they be brown or bare the whole rest of spring & summer?

Is there anything we can do to help them?  

thank you.

Answer
The hardwood trees will leaf out again this spring. Hardwoods have the capability to re leaf following a early spring freeze. I am not sure about the lilac bushes but I would guess they will be putting out new growth soon also. Just let the new growth come on and then if there are dead branches you can prune these off later. The dead leaves will drop off. by themselves. If they are pruned before they leaf out, you may cut a green branch that will put out new leaves.