Wiktionary
vb. (context of a plant English) to wither, particularly during the winter.
WordNet
v. suffer from a disease that kills shoots; "The plants near the garage are dying back" [syn: die down]
Usage examples of "die back".
Greenhouses would allow the USE to grow plants that can only thrive under tropical conditions, or to obtain additional crops of plants that die back or become dormant in the northern European winter.
And as her fingers tightened, cutting off his breath, making his pulse thunder in his ears, he wished he'd been left to die back on P'othpar ….
They built the fire high, adding more and more wood, then let it die back to a bed of glowing coals.
The kingspenny did not die back even in Saldaean winters, and when fires blackened the forests, those red flowers were always the first to reappear.