Surprisingly to me this year is the problem 'Joe Witt' is having with leafing out. It was doing its usual early leafing out when a hard frost got it I think. It still has buds and some leaves but I am wondering how it will do going forward. Supposed to be very hardy. Our zone has been "upgraded"? to 7B I think.
They do like shade. I don't see any signs of scald on yours, but the sun thins the skin, so it offers less protection against frost when the sap is running. My sad experience with almost all of the snakebarks, is that they can keel over suddenly from stress, and there's not much to be done about it. I hope yours recovers, it looks like a beautiful tree. Sometimes they come back, we have a 'Mindavi' (which is a davidii × tegmentosum in all likelyhood) which seemed to be in trouble, but is now going gangbusters. But another, 'Silver Vein' that was pretty big, is probably done: only a few small leaves. A davidii near it died a couple of years ago.
