Comments on: snowstorm aftermath: pruning, prayers, goodbyes

By: Bob Scherer

Bob Scherer — Sat, 11 Jun 2011 18:50:52 +0000

An update on my screw repair tip at the top of the comments. After another year there have been a couple of failures to my previous attempts. Still – I have some permanent (I think) successes. A dwarf Korean Fir (Abies koreana ‘Starker’s Dwarf’), two Rhododendron Yakushimanum hybrids, and a dwarf Japanese Maple (Acer palmatum ‘Kiyohime’). The two Yaku rhodies & the Korean Fir definitely would have been goners without the repair. The failures were to plants that were too small to compartmentalize the inevitable damage surrounding the screws. So – if the split sections are thick enough and can be knit together without misalignment, the repair will likely be successful. Certainly worth a try.

By: Margaret

Margaret — Mon, 17 May 2010 10:18:59 +0000

In reply to eleanor.

Welcome, Eleanor. Here’s the good news: Just let them be,and I predict they will rescurrect. Mine did over about a month’s time. Amazing, but true. So I’d be careful not to budge them myself but to let them have their way for awile and rebound as best they can under their own steam. Propping may be needed later, but wait and see for now – always the advice with snow-damaged woody things. Wait and see first.

By: eleanor

eleanor — Sun, 16 May 2010 21:35:41 +0000

I have six beautiful 5 year old daphnes “Carol Mackie” that have been trashed/flattened by a heavy Colorado May snowstorm that has them lying flat, they do not appear broken and are in full bloom. They look like they might benefit from a collar like a wide tomato cage going forward, has anyone ever tried anything like that. I definitley get the “prostata humor. I hate to lose these plants. Late snow is always a problem and this is not the first time it happened but it is the worst