mother nature

Yesterday, I was out turning my compost piles, planning to do some fall pruning,
when a sudden big wind blew threw. In a matter of a few minutes, my yard's a mess.
I know others probably suffered the same fate,
as I heard the storms were 'gaining strength as they moved east from the St Louis area'.
I hope others weathered the storm OK; I'm sure some were worse affected than me.
But it's so discouraging to go through these events.
In 5 or 10 minutes tops, I lost many unusual trees nearing maturity.
#1 is a yellowwood.
#2 is what's left of acer campestre Postelense.
#3 is cornus florida Cloud 9
#4 is stachyurus praecox.
#5 is a 20+ foot-tall idesia which literally snapped at ground-level.
I spent the day cutting away what debris I could from my treasured plants.
God knows what smaller plants are buried.

I was recently ranting on Frilly's thread about deer damage.
I have a new perspective today.
Between the varmints and mother nature, I'm close to giving up.
Next year may be petunias and magnolias.

I am happy you are safe. The trees will grow back, but I'm sorry you had this experience.

add my sympathies

so sorry

Oh man, sorry to hear that :( Did your trees have leaves on them yet?

Thoughts, prayers and sympathies go out to all that suffered damage in the recent storm.

Wow, sorry to hear that happened, how upsetting. I saw it went to the East of us. It was real windy here but nothing like what happened there. It was strong here, it had blown some dead limbs out of trees but nothing major, the winds apparently intensified in a big way over there.
Some photos were on the news, it looked like Joplin in areas.

That's really terrible, Wee. It looks as if a microburst might have hit them. I can see why you're ready to give up, but whatever took out those trees probably was a freak event, and you'll find something to keep the deer away from the replacement trees.I'm glad you and your home were spared.

Thanks, guys. Fortunately, some friends (with power equipment) are helping with the clean up. I haven't seen it since shortly after the storm, since we were staying with relatives with power. Now during the workweek, I'm never home during daylight, which may be best. I'll re-evaluate this weekend.

If any good can come of such a disaster...

**Think about providing the logs of unusual plants to woodcarvers or bowl-turners - bet they've never worked with Idesia polycarpa before.

**You have always wanted some sunny spots.

You have my sincerest sympathies.

my sympathies as well - hope some of them can grow back - and if not there is room for another on the wish list.

we have gone through a couple severe ice storms in the NE in the last decade and I feel your pain of loss. many of my trees that were damages grew back and the scars give them an interesting story.

Add me to the list of sympathizers.

Hope for the best, prepare for the worst. I have yet to cut down a young swamp oak that remains bent over after the Derecho last year.

Unfortunately such occurrences happen as demonstrated in the picture below provided by the National Weather Service Storm Prediction Service.

The map link was interesting, Terp,
though I'll admit I had to google 'derecho'.
Don't know for sure what it was other than a sudden big swirling wind.
A little small hail, fair amount of rain, all very brief.
If that defines a derecho, I'll go with it.

I had no idea what a derecho was until last year either. The derecho that hit Terp's and my area last year had a narrow path, at least in Virginia. My arborist said he could track the derecho by looking at the addresses of people as they called in to request emergency tree service.

Thanks for the map, Terp.

Before derecho, we had microburst. One of those passed near here and the resulting tree damage was shocking.

Yes, it was pretty amazing (in a bad way) to see isolated groups of trees snapped in half.

So sad Scott--I can feel your pain and relate to the feeling of giving up.....especially the older I get the more I realize I won't see some of my things ever mature or my "fill in the blank" has been nubbed down or rubbed raw by yet another deer.....but I hope you feel differently next spring when things that did make it through help you see that all was not lost. kim

Wee, I hoping I'm not pouring salt on a raw memory, but I am wondering how your smaller plants looked after you cleared away the mess.

Well, hard to say yet. Spring will tell more. I couldn't get any tree companies to come out any time soon, since they understandably were prioritizing people who had house damage. I and my pitiful chainsaw wouldn't have been able to come close to clearing everything. But some good friends & some rented heavy equipment (incl log splitter and industrial-strength chipper) have by now completely cleared it all away. All of us work full time, so they were using their weekends and time off. Their pitching in to help went a long way in restoring my faith in human decency in my usually cynical self. (I'm not sure that came out in English, but you know what I mean.) Anyway, the underlying shrubs are mainly dormant, so I can't tell much. An evergreen azalea is pretty much crumpled, but alive. I'm worried about several woodland peonies, foliage of which was just starting to die off at the time of the storm. They got completely trampled with no above-ground sign of life. I'll have to wait for spring to see how resilient mother nature is. I think I'm putting it in better perspective also, since I've started checking out some plant catalogs again; one of my great winter pastimes! Thanks for your concern!

Wow, masssive damage, I'm so sorry about your losses. I would have been one of those out there to help with my pitiful chainsaw if I lived in the area. You will be pleasantly surprised by how resilient mother nature is, she had a good designer. I'll be thinking about you come spring.

I'm glad you got it cleared away; that's at least one less in-your-face reminder of the destruction. My rhododendron rebounded quickly after it was partly crushed by a tree in March a few years ago; in fact, it looked better than ever by summer because the forced pruning made it fuller. I pinned a few lower branches to the ground to fill in empty places. Ditto with some azaleas I whacked way back early this year.
I bet your peonies will be fine; you'll have to send us photos!

Fortunately I've escaped the worst of it . . . from today's shipping forecast:

The general synopsis at 0600 UTC - Low Fair Isle 974 expected Baltic 962 by 0600 tomorrow

Viking - Westerly gale force 8 backing southwesterly and increasing severe gale force 9 imminent, veering northwesterly and increasing hurricane force 12 soon

North Utsire - Westerly severe gale force 9 backing southwesterly imminent, veering northwesterly and increasing violent storm force 11 soon

South Utsire - Violent storm force 11 veering northwesterly and increasing hurricane force 12 imminent

Forties - Westerly gale force 8 backing southwesterly and increasing severe gale force 9 imminent, veering northwesterly and increasing hurricane force 12 soon

Cromarty - Northwesterly hurricane force 12 decreasing violent storm force 11 imminent

Forth - Violent storm force 11 veering northwesterly and decreasing storm force 10 imminent

Tyne - Storm force 10 veering northwesterly and decreasing severe gale force 9 imminent

Dogger - Storm force 10 veering northwesterly and increasing violent storm force 11 imminent

Fisher - Gale force 8 backing southwesterly and increasing severe gale force 9 imminent, veering northwesterly and increasing hurricane force 12 soon

German Bight - Violent storm force 11 veering northwesterly and increasing hurricane force 12 imminent

Ouch!!

I think Wee is getting some new problems today, and previewing them for what is coming to us tomorrow: ICE.

No rest for the wicked...

Wow, Resin, that's bad. I was curious enough to look it up. Assuming the storm force is according to the Beaufort scale, hurricane force 12 is the top of the scale, with winds of 118 km/h or 74 mph. Lucky the wind died down before it came ashore.

I hope you zone 5 and 6'ers fare okay (or have fared okay) when the winter storm hits your areas. Our max temperatures will drop from a high of 68 today to 38 on Sunday, but we're not supposed to have the severe weather you're facing.

That England sounds like a scary place! I think I'll keep my distance. We just got snow, so not too bad. Looks like the ice stayed south of us, thank goodness. Last year I had to be rescued by a good Samaritan after becoming stranded sideways on the ice on my driveway. A little embarrassing. High temps just in the 20's next few days. I'll stay inside!

Resin, is a storm such as this about the worst that mother nature can throw at you? I have to admit I know very little about your weather conditions and have this image of England being a gardener's paradise.

Deleting this so I can add photos.

This message was edited Dec 10, 2013 2:59 PM

It's nothing compared to the losses suffered by Weerobin, but during an ice storm yesterday, Mother Nature saw fit to cause 2 branches to be ripped off my Magnolia grandiflora 'Little Gem'. Is it only in my dreams that I might be able to graft one or both back on? If I just have to cut my losses, could I clean up the nasty tear on the trunk towards the top of the shrub, or should I cut back the shrub to some point below it?

How did the rest of you fare during the snow and ice storms that hit most of the country?

Yes, that would be Magnolia grandiflora 'In Your Dreams'...

Better to simply stake the remainder crown to train a new leader, and keep the growth thrifty with water/fert during next growing season. If that stem wishes to fail, it will give you 30 days notification of intent to vacate. No need for you to perform a pre-emptive strike.

I refuse to go look at my plants till the ice melts off - which may not be till the weekend.

Thanks, VV. I think I've spotted the new leader: it's bending towards the house on the right in the 3rd photo. I'm not sure what you mean by staking because it would be hard to get a stake that tall. I could tie the new leader to a tree branch, or perhaps I could splint it to provide support until it's strong enough to stand on its own.

I was brushing snow off one of my Oakleaf hollies when what to my wondering eyes did appear but 8 tiny red berries (that's total, not clusters). It's definitely not something I'd recommend to those who want a holly laden with berries.

I was also surprised to see that in spite of the ice and snow, there were spider egg cases hanging by single strands of silk. Mother Nature sure got that right.

If it's any consolation, your Little Gem will be pretty big anyway in 20 years.

So sorry Muddy, I'd try to root those branches if it were me. You can tie the new leader to a strong branch opposite the bend and put some tension on it. Make sure you protect both branches from tie rubbing when the wind blows. A stake would work better as VV suggested.

Thanks, Mipii and Sally. It will look fine later on in life, I'm sure (especially as my vision deteriorates!).

I forgot about the importance of scale. The point at which the leader would have to be tied to the stake is 7 1/2 feet high, which is why I think I have to look at other options.

OK - it's time to diagram this out in the huddle, so everybody knows the play.

You don't have to stick your stake in the ground to train a new leader on a tree like this. You've already got a stout trunk to start with.

See image provided. Attach a stake to the top of the trunk remaining, and pull the leader-in-training up against it and secure. Keep in this condition for a growing season or two, et voila - you've got a new leader. Easy - peezy (Fabaceae slang)...

Ha ha truly funny! Thanks for the injection of humor. I did feel like a bad parent who should have given the shrub a good shake to get rid of the ice. I will find a suitable stake, get out my trusty black electrical tape, support the new leader, and be a better parent next time!

I feel bad for those of you dealing with your horticulture losses, they are never easy, and never when and on what you would like it to be either.

Weerobin, we had one 45 year old tree go down from a gust of wind and then 2 years later it was hit from lightening. This tree had a 3 split trunk, why the previous owner kept that tree like that I have no idea. 1 split was already gone when we purchased the house and the reminder went by by while we lived there. Thankfully two of my neighbors came with their chain saws and made fast work of it. I gave them the wood for their fireplaces and it didn't cost me anything and gave them a full years worth of wood. I was just so thankful when each section went down that my collies (I had six at the time) were in the yard, as each trunk took out the yard fence.

Muddy1 I'm sorry to hear of your losses, but I think you will be surprised at how most of them bounce back come this spring.

Mother nature is so incredible and brings great surprises in the spring time.

Jan

Wow, Jan, that tree had some nasty rot hidden inside; no wonder it split ! It reminds me of one of the silver maples I had taken down which, according to an arborist, had also been hit by lightening before we bought our house. It had cracks from the crotch clear through to the base, so it was doomed.

You're right, my magnolia will be okay, although I'm realizing that I'll need to prune it in the spring to make it more resistant to winter damage.

Yep and that rot was do to ants, believe it or not. The guys had to spray it as they were pretty stirred up over being disturbed...

We wanted to take it down when we first moved in as due to the crotch having already lost one truck it was for sure it would be a matter of time... The companies we call wanted 3-6,000 to take down the remaining two trunks... so we opted out for mother nature to help.

But like I said I'm just blessed that each time my collies weren't in the yard.

We lost a cork screw willow due to a late April wet snow, killed the crown, and it was such a beauty.

Who knows maybe this spring you will see the beauty behind the damage, at least I pray that is so for you.

Jan

Thanks, Jan. I forgot to mention that I'm glad your collies weren't in the yard when it fell. They would have bolted for sure!