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De-snowing shrubs

• Message 1. 

  Posted by Goldilocks (U2169760) on Friday, 3rd February 2012

  Last winter the heavy snow flattened ceanothus and even tough shrubs like my pyracanthas, (and my tall evergreen euphorbias). And then the snow turned to ice on the branches and stayed there for a week or more, causing lasting damage / dieback. So this morning, I was out swishing my yardbrush before the snow turned from powder to hard ice that is so much harder to shake off. Looks like I'll be at it big time on Sunday morning (I live in Lincolnshire).

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• Message 2

  , in reply to message 1.

  Posted by boozysuzy (U10896459) on Saturday, 4th February 2012

  Hi Goldilocks. Last Tuesday we had a quite heavy snow fall - about a foot (we live near Nice in the South of France but quite high up a mountain and we often get snow). My kids were unable to get to school so I sent my son out while it was still snowing to knock the snow off the olive trees as branches have snapped before and I didn't want it to happen again. He thought it was great fun - he is 14 but still a bit of an idiot (in a nice way!). We also had a 12 hour powercut which wasn't so much fun but at least we have a log fire and a camping stove so we were OK! I will worry for ages now until I see new growth in the garden in Spring and see what has survived - I already had things like Echinacea starting to show. I have a Bougainvillea in a pot which was looking fine but has now dropped all it's leaves - I hope it'll be OK.

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  Posted by Goldilocks (U2169760) on Saturday, 4th February 2012

  Live in hope! Last winter I expected utter devastation after the bitter cold and heavy snow. In the end almost everything survived, except for dahlias i had left in the ground, three bays trees I kept in pots (the ones in open ground were fine) and one small ceanothus.
  Many shrubs had to be severely pruned, some to remove dieback and otehrs because heavy snow that laid on them for 10 days bent the stems over so much they could not recover. But, one after another, all my other plants reemerged, none the worse for the experience.
  The good news is that a spell really cold weather will benefit my fruit trees. I didn't realise until I read it in The Garden last month, but apples. pears, plums etc. produce an inhibitor in summer to stop development of flower / leaf buds in autumn and allow the trees to hut down for winter. It requires many hours of freezing temperatures to get rid of the inhibitor and allow spring development of flower buds, and until now we have not had nearly enough. With what we can expect over the next week or so I reckon we will have had what is needed for a decent crop.

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  Posted by AlinaW (U2220240) on Sunday, 5th February 2012

  Worth pinging this, I think, to remind folks in areas of heavy snowfall to shake it off their plants.

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  Posted by Goldilocks (U2169760) on Sunday, 5th February 2012

  I left mine till late morning, after I had done the drive, and that was a bit of a mistake. By which time the powdery snow had started to get a bit wet and was sticking a bit, so it as a lot harder to get it off than the other day when i did it first thing and the snow came away like flour dust.
  It reminded me that what happened to cause so much dieback last year last year was that the snow melt found its way into tiny openings in leaf buds, and the following night it froze again. And as we all know from those days when we had milk delivered in bottles, the ice expands and does serious damage to the growing tips. It will teach me to do it earlier in the day next time!

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  Posted by brownturtledove (U13667245) on Sunday, 5th February 2012

  Last winter the heavy snow flattened ceanothus and even tough shrubs like my pyracanthas, (and my tall evergreen euphorbias). And then the snow turned to ice on the branches and stayed there for a week or more, causing lasting damage / dieback. So this morning, I was out swishing my yardbrush before the snow turned from powder to hard ice that is so much harder to shake off. Looks like I'll be at it big time on Sunday morning (I live in Lincolnshire).   Hi I live in Austria, and I have to do this with wet snow too, big job but worth it if you love your shrubs, we also tie bushes with twine to help minimize this problem, even evregreens they do not suffer this way just does look strange if there in no snow. I always tie up my bamboo.

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