JP Maples in the snow.

I still have no snow cover, weird winter for us.

We actually have had allot of small snows 1-4" most of tjhe wimnter but no bigger storms and snow on the ground but small amounts obviously for most of the winter .. allot of wind though... Last wiinter we had no snow til late feb and march which didn't last long. The really cold last year period when it was for about ten days in the mid negative teens 15-17 below.. we had no snow cover . It was the coldest it been in 10 or more years .. and my JM's looked the best they ever did this spring go figure... David(san)

It hasn't been below zero much here, maybe once ot twice, but the wnds have been crazy. Quite a few days with 30-50 mph winds. As a matter of fact our full size trampoline blew a hundred into the neighbor's yard and bent to smithereens.

Yes the winds here have been horrible...basically after each little storm that came thru here and then dumped on the east they were 30-40mpgh in gusts and 25-30 straight.. pretty nasty .. and over that past year we have also had allot of east winds. I don't remeber winds coming from the east but maybe a half a dozen times in the 80's and 90's total but lately 25 or more times a year.on the back side of these storms .. very weird .

Probably for us the most troubling for JM's is the massive amount of rain we got in Nov and early Dec several in the 4-6" variety .. being flat with little drainage and with it having been frozen over after they came .. who knows what damage that will do to the planted out jms . I, as well as many others have stated repeatedly the biggest single threat to jms is too much moisture... period !! whether it be over watering , saturated soil, water pooling above clay in amended soil or just constant rain Jm's really need to dry out between watering nor getting soaked. You have a greater likelihood of disease such as root rot fungus and just plain trees being drowned..so to speak .

I would have thought that freezing water may be a good thing as they spray it to protect orange trees in FLA during hard freezes but from having trees shipped bare root in winter well watered and frozen stiff I have learned that is not the case ;>00000 any body that ships bare root in winter or buys bare root in winter is a bit greedy (sellers)or naive (buyers). Even shipping potted trees during very cold periods is dicey...so being a bit overanxious is not a very wise thing in the JM world .. David(san)

This message was edited Feb 14, 2010 5:38 PM

well I have good drainage going for me, it's all sand under the topsoil, and I'm on a slight rise.

I thought I would update, my little Japanese Maple looks pretty good! I plan on planting some conifers near it to protect it from the wind.
My Crimson King maple however has a crack in the bark from the bottom of it's trunk to the top. I think we had too much freeze/thaw. The roads are all frost heaves.

The update on mine is, it looks like they all made it through the snow fall this winter. The orida nikishki looks great and putting out some small buds. The one out front was all under snow. When I took a shovel and lifted the hard snow off, it popped right up. The only bush I am concerned about now if the crept Mertle. It is not looking alive.

Crepe myrtles covered in snow should be in good shape, but they do tend to bud out late. Here in Zone 5b, crepe myrtles are marginally hardy, usually dying to the ground every winter. This spring, they are green to the tips of every branch! So, I bet yours are fine, too. Scratch a little of the bark off some twigs to see if they're green.