We were very fortunate to only lose one small branch from my large Rhododendron out front.
When we have heavy snow fall, it can wreak havoc in the gardens. With prolonged snowfall, the snow accumulates on trees and bushes. With enough snow they can become weighed down very easily. Here you can see two pine trees that have fallen over under the weight of the snow. In this storm we had about ten inches of wet snow. The wet snow tends to stick to the trees and if the sun does not come out right away to melt it, it can kill a tree by the extra weight causing branches or the trunk to snap off.
This tree is just about on the ground under the weight of the snow.
I am trying to be vigilant this winter to help minimize the damage done in the gardens. Right after this particular storm I got right outside to help these trees. I use a broom and shake the snow off the branches by gently tapping them with the end of the broom. You just need to remember a couple of things in this process. If you work from the bottom branches up you end up having to do the lower ones twice, as the snow from the upper branches wants to stay on the lower ones. So start from the top.
If you are working on a tree with branches over your head, remember to not stand right under the branches. If you do, you will get buried under the snow you shake off!!!
Don't wait too long to get the snow off. If the snow stays on long enough the weight will break the branch and could destroy the entire tree. as with these trees, if you get the snow off right away they have a great chance of springing right back to their original stance.
You can see from this photo that both of these trees got right back to their upright stance within just a few days.
Most of the branches of this other tree are struggling to keep from being snapped to the ground.
And this is the after photo.
In my next post I will document what can happen if you do not get to the tree soon enough.
4 comments:
I think the following URLs will help you to prevent your hard work.
Please try that next season.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yukitsuri
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/ek20070220wh.html
Thanks Hero - The sites you recommended are fascinating. I do not know of any area in this country that takes the time to prepare trees for the winter snows in a similar way.
The Kenroku-en site is especially wonderful. Such beautiful gardens. I love being able to see the different seasons.
I prefer a kind of neglect with my garden: if the snow kills it, then maybe it doesn't belong in my yard.
Cheerds!
I used to carefully wrap my small shrubs in burlap for winter protection. Then I got to the stage where I was not wanting plantings here that were unable to survive our winters. So I decided to let them survive on their own. That's what native plantings are all about. But I do find that there are some years that are just terribly rough on things around here.
I did finally go out on Thursday and shake the snow off of those small pines that get so trampled. There was so much snow that I had to sweep a path ahead of myself to be able to walk in the snow without my boots getting buried!!
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