gardening
BY RACHEL FOSTER
The Kindest Cut
Dealing with the snowstorm’s carnage
W
hen the great March snowfall
struck the Willamette Valley, I
was basking in unseasonably
warm New York sunshine. As we landed
in Eugene a few days later, piles of grayish
snow at the airport were still evident. But
by far the more powerful testimony was
the carnage we saw among the trees. The
streets were mostly cleared but broken
branches were piled everywhere, in front
yards, medians and park strips. The fi rst
thing we noticed was that most of the
destruction seemed to involve purple
leafed plums, which had been in full,
ravishing pink bloom when the snow fell.
Many magnolias were also in bloom,
as were white-fl owered Japanese plums.
Neither sustained the kind of damage
infl icted on the unfortunate pink plums.
These are weak-wooded trees with a
miserable growth habit, at least when
grown in a wet climate, and I personally
think far too many of them are planted. I
guess the combination of rapid growth,
showy pink bloom and purple foliage
is irresistible. And I have to admit that
heavy, wet snow is a relatively rare event
in Eugene. In one respect, the trees were
lucky. A few degrees warmer, and we might
have had a severe ice storm, with much
greater and less selective consequences.
Trees that were not in bloom suffered as
well, especially those with densely twiggy,
snow-catching structure. Dogwoods and
Japanese maples lost only minor branches,
but some trees in my neighborhood that I
tentatively identifi ed as Chinese or lacebark
elm (Ulmus parvifolia) suffered the same
kind of profound failure as so many of
the plums, with major limbs snapping off
entirely or tearing away from the main
trunk, leaving heartwood exposed.
Classifieds
S
T
N
EV CA E LENDAR
Whatever the type of tree, that kind
of damage involving the main trunk is
essentially fatal. The kindest thing to do is
to have the tree removed and plant another.
Trunk tears may heal, after a fashion, and
a plum will readily send up suckers from
truncated limbs, but the tree that results
will be compromised forever, risking heart
rot and weakly attached branches. If the
tree is young, you can try cutting it fl ush
with the ground. Plum trees are usually
more than happy to respond with new
growth. Later you can select one or more
of them to form new trunks.
Where storm damage isn’t quite so
bad, surgery may be worthwhile. Severely
damaged branches should be cut off as soon
as possible, at the point where they join a
larger limb or the main trunk. Oaks and
Douglas fi rs have a habit of dropping large
limbs, rather than tearing away from the
trunk. Remove the stubs with a clean cut.
Also prune away broken wood on smaller
limbs over an inch in diameter. Clean cuts
heal better than tears, with less likelihood
of fungal infections that may shorten the
life of the tree. Shrubs will also be better
off if broken branches are removed.
Another common form of damage
that results from heavy snow, especially
in conifers such as arbor vitae and
Italian cypress, is the splaying outward
of branches. Sometimes they split off,
sometimes not. Splayed but unbroken
shrubs can often be saved by carefully
re-shaping and tying. Heavy plastic plant
tape and old tights are good materials to
use. New growth will slowly fi ll in any
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irregularities, but the ties may have to
remain in place indefi nitely, so do the
best job you can to make them invisible.
Drooping pine limbs will partly recover on
their own, but props can help.
When you’ve done all that, April is a
good time for some other kinds of pruning.
Remove winter-damaged tips from
evergreens, if you haven’t already done it.
Spring fl owering shrubs are usually pruned
after they bloom, but now is the time to
prune shrubs that bloom in summer on new
growth: hydrangeas, roses and Japanese
spiraea, for example. I wait until the
weather actually warms up before pruning
more tender specimens. It’s usually mid to
late April before I see obvious new growth
and know that it’s time to prune lavender,
blue mist shrub (bluebeard, or Caryopteris)
and other subshrubs.
What’s a subshrub? Anything you
might think of as a woody perennial, like
santolina, thyme and culinary sage. Many
subshrubs get fl oppy and out of shape
and bloom less consistently if not pruned
back on a regular basis. Heather is a great
example, but heather is extremely hardy
and I usually trim it right after the fl owers
fade in March.
Another thing subshrubs have in
common: their useful life is often a short
few years. Trimming regularly helps
extend the life of lavender and heather, but
they still may need to be replaced after fi ve
years or so.
ew
Rachel Foster of Eugene is a writer and garden
consultant. She can be reached at rfoster@efn.org
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