Friday, January 20, 2012

In the Bleak Midwinter


Freezing rain is the evil step sister of snow. We had 6" of snow on Wednesday (1/18) followed by an inch of ice on Thursday (1/19). The supercooled raindrops instantly froze to whatever they touched - like this witch hazel (Hamamelis intermedia). Unfortunately, the ice also cut off the power.

Below, the redwood tree (Sequoia sempervirens) had a few branch casualties. Considering people cut holes through these trees and drive through them, I'm confident it will recover just fine.



Some plants will have a tougher recovery though. I noticed a major branch had broken off of my Trochodendron aralioides (pictured below, off to the left behind the bamboo).


Ice can be very beautiful when it's not ruining things.



An "ice fossil" of a palm tree.


Somewhere under those icicles are flower buds on this Camellia sasanqua.


Normally this bamboo (Phyllostachys rubromarginata) hides our neighbor's motor home shed. Not today.


One unlikely plant that managed to stay standing: this Melianthus major.


Hopefully the fish are doing alright under all that slush in the pond. No power means no water circulation but they are pretty much in hibernation mode anyway.


Finally, a look inside the greenhouse. Under normal circumstances the temperature in there never falls below 50 degrees, but with the power being out, there's not much I can do about that!


2 comments:

  1. So sorry to see this. My bamboo looked similar for a few hours on Wednesday but with only wet snow and no ice it wasn't nearly as bad. Please let us know how thing are doing as the power comes on and the ice melts.

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    1. Things actually didn't do too badly, given the circumstances. I think the worst casualty was my Trochodendron aralioides tree, which had a large branch rip right off the trunk. I think it should recover eventually though...

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