Misery loves company - the winter hall of shame

[Bonsai Nut]

This last winter was my third in NC, and it caught me off-guard. Call it hubris or distraction, but I clearly was not ready for the record-breaking cold (7 degrees on Christmas day) and did not do enough to prepare my trees. Then we had a warm February and early March, followed by a late two-week freeze in March that beat on a lot of young buds. Though I am still waiting to see if Mother Nature will battle back, I am pretty sure I lost quite a number of trees. It will be the first winter in years where I have lost a tree from cold, and my worst winter that I can ever remember (in general). By next winter I will have moved into my new house, and will have had time to set up a more permanent over-wintering solution. But for now I am fighting through some sadness.

Any one else have sad tree news to share?

 

[johng]

This winter and early spring were horrible!!! I easily lost more trees than I have in the last 20 years combined! Cold temps, irrigation system damage, and just plain neglect! I am ashamed, embarrassed, frustrated and disheartened. Most were small trees and seedlings but more than 200 in total and still waiting on some small tridents to hopefully pop...

 

[Underdog]

This is the first winter in years I've stayed home to "care" for my trees. Previously left them tucked away and neglected while we ran away to Florida. Occasionally had a neighbor water. Very few losses.

I have several not waking up as well as a lot of dry/dead branches in tops. Jury is still out on how many and how much damage. Clearly looking like my worst year out of the last 7.

Super cold early winter before trees were fully dormant I feel is the culprit. Mild winter otherwise for Ohio.

 

[rockm]

This last winter was my third in NC, and it caught me off-guard. Call it hubris or distraction, but I clearly was not ready for the record-breaking cold (7 degrees on Christmas day) and did not do enough to prepare my trees. Then we had a warm February and early March, followed by a late two-week freeze in March that beat on a lot of young buds. Though I am still waiting to see if Mother Nature will battle back, I am pretty sure I lost quite a number of trees. It will be the first winter in years where I have lost a tree from cold, and my worst winter that I can ever remember (in general). By next winter I will have moved into my new house, and will have had time to set up a more permanent over-wintering solution. But for now I am fighting through some sadness.

Any one else have sad tree news to share?

I feel your pain. Welcome to the new eastern U.S. weather For the last five or so years, winter has become unpredictable here. Deep early cold followed by extremely warm days in Feb. and March, followed by cold. We had a frost last night, even though temperatures were in the low 40's. It was 92 last Friday or so.

I've lost and almost lost, a few trees in the last five years, where I had never lost one in the previous 20 years. Still mourning a very nice stock BC that got hit with a late March deep freeze a couple of years ago. Almost lost another too, but nursed it back to health.

RIP:

 

[RJG2]

Mine all survived the weather just fine, but those damn voles...

 

[Bonsai Nut]

Cold temps, irrigation system damage, and just plain neglect!

Before I moved to NC I had studied the climate. Though nights would often drop below freezing it was almost unheard of for there to be a day where temps didn't rise significantly above freezing. The average January high for my area is supposed to be 51F. The first two winters I didn't lose a tree. This winter my hoses froze solid so I couldn't even water, and I lost two irrigation timers - because I wasn't prepared for them to burst due to the hard freezing temps.

The only thing I managed to do successfully was to move all of my Japanese maples into the garage for the last two weeks of March - which I think saved the majority. I left a couple of trident maples out, and one has significantly frost damage.

 

[jradics]

This last winter was my third in NC, and it caught me off-guard. Call it hubris or distraction, but I clearly was not ready for the record-breaking cold (7 degrees on Christmas day) and did not do enough to prepare my trees. Then we had a warm February and early March, followed by a late two-week freeze in March that beat on a lot of young buds. Though I am still waiting to see if Mother Nature will battle back, I am pretty sure I lost quite a number of trees. It will be the first winter in years where I have lost a tree from cold, and my worst winter that I can ever remember (in general). By next winter I will have moved into my new house, and will have had time to set up a more permanent over-wintering solution. But for now I am fighting through some sadness.

Any one else have sad tree news to share?

The 3 days of 6 degrees in atlanta was tough. A lot of landscape plants took a beating and completely defoliated. A warm February got them sprouting new leaves then we got another bad freeze. the new leaves got crushed again and some of the plants just didnt come back. Plants that got hurt or killed: tea olive, many viburnum, gardenia, fatsia, crape myrtle, loropetalum,... granted, we know these are marginal in our climate but there are many mild winters that allow this stuff to thrive

 

[Dogestoevsky]

March: 🕶

April:

 

[Michael P]

Climate change has made our weather here in north Texas even more extreme than normal. The last three years we have had unusually warm, mild winters that prevented plants from becoming fully dormant. But then there was at least one brief but catastrophic freeze, often in late winter. I didn't lose any bonsai, but landscape plants were dropping like flies. I am a landscape architect, and now there is a whole list of previously reliable species that we cannot plant anymore.

 

[Bonsai Nut]

Climate change has made our weather here in north Texas even more extreme than normal. The last three years we have had unusually warm, mild winters that prevented plants from becoming fully dormant. But then there was at least one brief but catastrophic freeze, often in late winter. I didn't lose any bonsai, but landscape plants were dropping like flies. I am a landscape architect, and now there is a whole list of previously reliable species that we cannot plant anymore.

Well, I'll be adding to my list of Southern California trees that can take a hard winter, including:
Cork Oak
Olive
Valley / California White Oak
Cork Bark Chinese Elm
These seemed completely unfazed.

 

[Michael P]

To compare notes, my olive went into the garage, but my Chinese elms were undamaged. They, and all my other temperate zone trees, were on the ground, sheltered from wind, with mulch or other insulation around the pots. The tops were left exposed.

 

[bwaynef]

This winter and early spring were horrible!!! I easily lost more trees than I have in the last 20 years combined! <snip> Most were small trees and seedlings but more than 200 in total and still waiting on some small tridents to hopefully pop...

Exactly my experience. I've already pulled out several small tridents that I'm not hopeful about.

 

[rockm]

Well, I'll be adding to my list of Southern California trees that can take a hard winter, including:
Cork Oak
Olive
Valley / California White Oak
Cork Bark Chinese Elm
These seemed completely unfazed.

I'd be cautious about assuming that some of these are able to withstand hard winters. Cork oak and olive are mostly at the extreme northern end of their hardiness zones. Don't know about the Valley oak. Elms are fine.

Cork Oak isn't hardy here in zone 7a, nor are most olives. Cork Oak is hardy to zones 8-11. There are only a handful of olive varieties that can take sustained below freezing temps.

FWIW, Warren Hill, a former curator at the National Bonsai an Penjing Museum told me cork oak is problematic here, particularly as bonsai because of wintering. Same for olive.

Even if your trees have proven to be hardy for the last few years, all it takes is an ill-timed cold snap and you could be done with them. That happened with the BC pictured above.

I had a La. collected BC for two decades overwintered only under mulch in the backyard. No issues at all. Even endured -7 F in one deep winter in the late 90's. I assumed a newly-acquired BC would do the same. It got the same, possibly more, protection as the older tree. However, we got hit with a relatively late cold snap that dropped into the teens and twenties for two days in early April. It had not pushed new leaves, but had buds present. The tree was killed down to its mulched roots. The other BC that I've had for a while was also damaged but not as severely.

I've since become more sensitive to roller coaster temperatures, particularly in spring. I bring everything in if there's a cold snap coming.

 

[dbonsaiw]

Sorry to hear all the horrible news. Makes me consider investing in a more temperature controlled greenhouse if this is to be a long term passion.

 

[Maiden69]

Lost three decent BCs that were supposed to make it into pots this year, a pomegranate that I had just bought from Matt O, and 2 chojubai I got from BVF last year.

Last fall. The 2 chojubai are at the middle right as well.

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

Two young cherries have died.
One banksiana pine.
One communis juniper because the repot was too early - but only lost half.

 

[Linn01]

RIP:
- 1 prunus incisa koujou no mai
- 2 ulmus
- 1 satsuki azalea
- 1 forsythia

doubtful:

- 2 zelkova

a winter to remember

 

[Vincent Tanner]

Of about 20 trees, all outside buried in mulch, I lost 1. Unfortunately, it was one of my favorites— a small, twiggy shohin elm.



Everything else is wide awake and leafed out. But the twigs on this poor guy snap right off and there’s no green. Some branches still seem flexible and there are signs of buds that never opened. Maybe if I keep my fingers crossed a green bud will show up way inside at the trunk.

It’s mysterious to me because less hardy trees in smaller pots did just fine. This tree survived last winter outside on the ground.

This winter was very warm except for a single freak minus 10F night. Maybe that was enough.

Sad.

 

[BonsaiPoppie]

Of about 20 trees, all outside buried in mulch, I lost 1. Unfortunately, it was one of my favorites— a small, twiggy shohin elm.

View attachment 483390

Everything else is wide awake and leafed out. But the twigs on this poor guy snap right off and there’s no green. Some branches still seem flexible and there are signs of buds that never opened. Maybe if I keep my fingers crossed a green bud will show up way inside at the trunk.

It’s mysterious to me because less hardy trees in smaller pots did just fine. This tree survived last winter outside on the ground.

This winter was very warm except for a single freak minus 10F night. Maybe that was enough.

Sad.

It looks like a new pot didn't make it either.

 

[Vincent Tanner]

It looks like a new pot didn't make it either.

lol, fortunately, it’s just a dollar store terracotta pot.