The gardener's eye

The Gardener's Eye

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Trick or Treat?



We got over 18" of snow last night, the day before Halloween. The red oak, Quercus rubra, in lower garden glows like a jack-o-latern in the morning light. It appears that trees, even with large leaves, that generally retain their foliage are well-adpted to let snow glide of their leaves and reduce the risk of damage during early season snowfalls.


Fortunately, there has been little damage so far to the ornamental trees like Cercidiphyllum japonicum which have held onto their leaves. Today, this tree reminds of the cultivar Cercidiphyllum japonicum 'Pendula'. The bad news is that I didn't have time to finish planting all the bulbs which arrived this week from Brent and Becky's Bulbs. I have over 100 tulips yet to plant!

We live on a one of the few streets where the houses are close together in a small New England town. We are expecting 300 trick or treaters tomorrow. Could be a little scary.

7 comments:

  1. Michael,
    You must have had a dry snow. Our wet snow was devestating to the trees still in leaf. It didn't slide off, but held on like glue. My river birches and willows were actually flat on the ground. We decided to leave Federal Twist (no power, thus no heat, no cooking, perhaps for days), and found two of our three ways out blocked by fallen trees. Even major highways had lanes blocked by fallen trees. I hate to go back later this week and see the damage. But, of course, nature has a way of repairing all this, though it will take many years. Lucky New Hampshire to get light, dry snow.

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  2. James,
    I'm sorry you have had so much damage. I was thinking that being past peak foliage season was an advantage because the leaves had already fallen off most of trees.

    We had a devastating ice storm 3 years ago. I also wonder if many of the weak branches have already broken.

    Safe travels.

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  3. Actually, Les, the more I hear about what happened in CT and NJ, the more I realize what happened here was a treat.

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  4. It looks like a treat to me, Michael. I love your photo of the red oak.

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  5. Great post storm photo looking down on your terrace. The snow has recreated your garden furniture, making it into playful looking overstuffed white upholstered chairs. You have a good eye to capture that !

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  6. Thanks Faisal. It was pretty remarkable in the morning light.

    James and Beth, I took that same photo last year but this one was much better. I liked it too. Hope your garden survived the storm well.

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