Escallonia hedge dead to the ground?

In my garden I have around 80m of Escallonia hedges most of which are about 5ft high by 5ft wide. About half the hedges are at least 25+ years old with the rest planted 5 -10 years ago. Over the course of the winter the leaves went brown and started to drop off which was unsurprising due to how low the temperatures got. However it is now mid-april and the hedges are still showing no sign of any life apart from the base in the middle where there are now masses of tiny little green shoots appearing- these are emerging from ground level up to about 2 inches above ground on the trunks. I also tried cutting out a few selected branches and trunks along the hedge at various heights down to 6 inches above ground level and they all seemed brown inside and were rather brittle.

Is there any possibility that the main area of the hedge is going to spring back to life or is the best course of action to cut the whole thing down to just above the new growth, feed it and wait for it to recover? Not looking forward to such a big job! Also, has anyone else suffered anything similar after the harsh winter?

 

Welcome to the forum spring.
What a shame about your hedge. I think what you have discovered is that escallonia is not fully hardy in harsh conditions.
I had an escallonia hedge in my last garden and like yours it was fine for years - but we didn't have a winter like last winter.
I planted an escalonia shrub in this garden last year and sadly it is stone dead.
I would wait a few more weeks and see what your hedge does - but it doesn't sound promising.
It may break in some places and it may come from under the ground in some places. Whatever, it will take a long time to make a good hedge again.
You must be very disappointed about it. Hope it turns out the best way it can.

 

Cut it all back to just above the new growth.

You'll be amazed how quickly escallonia will grow from that position. I cut a big escallonia hedge down to 2 inches high a number of years ago in the winter. At the end of that summer it was 3 feet high and sturdier than ever!

The same has happened to my fuschias this year. The growth is now coming from the bottom and I've trimmed them down to 2 inches high.