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Winter Hemlocks Tuesday, Dec 17 2013
gardening and Modern Photos gardening, photography, trees 22:59
Through the glass Friday, Dec 13 2013
Landscapes and Modern Photos photography 18:42
Winter Windows Tuesday, Dec 10 2013
Esperanza and Modern Photos photography 19:59
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December Ice Monday, Dec 9 2013
gardening and Modern Photos and Trees gardening, trees, weather 12:21
Contrary to the expected, December around here tends more towards ice than snow. This year, the long spell of close/below freezing has meant that our current winter weather is rather mild: it started as snow and is now sort of drizzle.
Other years, however, it comes as ice. That ice can be pretty is in no way a redeeming feature. It tends to prune trees in an unfortunate manner. Most of the native trees can adapt, hemlock and spruce simply droop, white pine unfortunately tends to drop branches, usually snapping off a few feet out from the main trunk.* This doesn’t bother the tree, but people don’t care for it. Birches bend, until they don’t of course. Oaks and Maples stand tall, unless they are unbalanced due to a combination of factors (unbalanced rapid growth, saturated ground, wind, etc.); they usually don’t drop branches in ice storms however.** The truly vulnerable trees are the non-native ornamental ones which often have many narrowly branched limbs, such as Japanese Maples; sadly those tend to tear off at the trunk, making for a difficult pruning job afterwards.
This shows a light ice-load on the trees east of the house, you can see how the Norway Spruces in the background (which normally would be touching) have turned into individual ‘cones’ as the branches are weighed down. The closest trees are pines, and you can just tell that the main branches do not flex at all, only the smaller branches under a few inches in diameter. The Maples in the midground have not changed shape at all.
*Mature white pines, that is, the 70 ft plus monsters, such as the ones in the photo. The limbs simply fracture, if you look at them afterwards there is very little tearing in the way you see on maple or ash.
**Look, All Trees can and do drop things in storms (don’t go dancing around in the woods without paying attention to what is above you!)
Balanced trees are important, some trees are more tolerant than others and can carry an uneven load: as is shown by this River Birch, which is quite one-sided, but it capable of bending in the main trunk:
However, there is always a possibility that they can carry the uneven load until they don’t: this double trunk Red Oak was about sixty years old, perfectly healthy. It simply grew a bit too much due to the other side of the road being cleared two years previously, giving it much more light. As you can see, there were no branches on the side facing away from the road. Ice plus saturated ground plus a year of abundant extra growth and…thud. (this was several years ago, the trees have since been aggressively pruned by the DOT)*
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*Murphy’s Law being what it is, there was a car going past at the time. The driver was fine, the car not so much.
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Old Sugar Maples Tuesday, Dec 3 2013
gardening and Landscapes and Modern Photos gardening, maples, photography 14:38
Out beyond the big garden, lining the old road. It is essentially impossible to get a good picture of them, too big and too close! I cannot touch the bottom of those lower limbs, however, even on my toes and arm outstretched. We have planted beneath them with a mix of evergreens, as the new road/highway is only about fifty feet away from this point, off to the right of the photo.
Turn the Furnace on! Tuesday, Nov 19 2013
Esperanza and Modern Photos cats 19:20
It is on, of course. It also is in the basement right beneath these two…. A and B, brother and sister. B is the one on the right. They spend most of the winter right there. Not the most social of animals, but quite good at mouse patrol.
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Road to …? Sunday, Nov 17 2013
Esperanza and Julie's Pond and Landscapes and Modern Photos connecticut, photography, roads 20:02
The Problem of Scale Tuesday, Nov 12 2013
Esperanza and gardening and Landscapes and Modern Photos gardening 23:45
One of the more common problems with projects around here is the ‘everything is Bigger’ one. In the house this cropped up recently with the discovery that the ceiling in one room was not 15 feet, but more like 17 plus to the peak….of course in some other rooms it is less than seven, so no guarantees.
It is fairly typical to hit this with trees, usually when we try to prune them.
The scale of the place is rarely conveyed in photos, since I hate taking photos of people and most people around here have no desire to have their photo taken.
This rare shot helps illustrate scale. (my apologies to the model! ) 🙂 Consider it in relation to the Japanese Maple photo of a few days, which shows the same trees.
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Japanese Maples in the Fall Thursday, Nov 7 2013
gardening and Historic Photos and Landscapes and Modern Photos gardening, japanese maples, photography 23:02
I mentioned in passing that I don’t object to Japanese Maples, which is good as we have a number of them…Although some of the more strict ‘native plants only’ group would argue for them being invasive; they don’t fit the definition very well here. They grow much too slowly to compete with native maples or oaks, (assuming of course there are native maples to seed the area). They do, however, germinate and grow. We started with two: a finely cut dwarf and a fairly coarse purple/red back in the 1920’s. They have crossed over the years and have produced many babies: some with finer cut leaves than others; some with good fall color (brilliant orange or scarlet), some that are an OK purple/red; some that have green summer foliage (always orange in the fall), some with dark red summer foliage.
The original dwarf, finely cut one. You can see a branch of the other original in the top left corner. Sadly, this dwarf is not long for the world, this photo was taken three years ago, the top branches have since died.
One of the babies with a fairly typical medium fine cut, this one is almost green in the summer.
Two of the offspring, the closer one is a genuine scarlet in the fall, the other is noticeably more purple/maroon. That is accurate color in the photo.
One of the earliest photos that show the original two in 1957.
The same maples in 2012. This maroon color is the standard for most of the offspring as well.
Red Maples Sunday, Nov 3 2013
gardening and Modern Photos gardening, maples 22:06
I fail, utterly, to understand why people plant Norway Maples by the thousand. Japanese Maples I understand (I’d better, otherwise I am a total hypocrite). But Norways? Now, we have several very large Norways, but I cut every sapling I see. They have poor fall color, rarely have good structure (especially the more modern cultivars), and blah bark. Never mind that havoc they are wreaking as invasive species par excellence!
The quandary is made worse by the existence of three outstanding native maples: Sugar, Red, and Silver. All three have gorgeous fall color, the Red and Silver are very tough trees, (the Silver is a common urban street tree in Montreal), both the Red and Silver are fast growing, they have generally good structure (full grown Sugar Maples are classics), elegant bark, and did I mention the fall color…?
Here is a shot of our young Red Maple, looking up into it, hardly doing it justice. And this, in a Terrible year for fall color. It is an orange one, some around here are a true scarlet. Each tree has a specific color that they turn each year, the base color is not weather dependent, only the brilliance and length of the show.
Acair Fearann 