Misery loves company - the winter hall of shame

[GGB]

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.

are you sure it's not just dormant. I'm in eastern PA and none of the chinese elm landscape trees here are breaking bud yet

 

[Vincent Tanner]

are you sure it's not just dormant. I'm in eastern PA and none of the chinese elm landscape trees here are breaking bud yet

No, I’m not 100% sure. But I took it to a repotting class at the local nursery and the owner was skeptical about it surviving. Like I said, no visible green beneath the bark.

My other Chinese Elm’s look like this:




I have a couple other trees that haven’t broken buds yet, though. Korean and European Hornbeams, one Japanese Maple.

Fingers crossed.

 

[GGB]

sounds bad then haha, sorry man

 

[MHBonsai]

I've lost a few trees - one osage orange that was a new air layer, and a red pine that I had mulched in.

More than that though, I lost a ton of branching on trees. Lots of die-back and lost ramification.

 

[Cajunrider]

As I have mentioned here before, this year I lost my best live oak, my best rainbow eucalyptus, a Tamarindus indica, a bunch of Mayhaw, a couple of bald cypresses, etc.

 

[R0b]

Lost my Magnolia liliflora due to persistent rain and a beginner repot. Pythium or another disease killed of the roots.

 

[ShadyStump]

Still too early to tell for sure here - maybe one full week fully above freezing so far this spring before dropping back to freezing over night - but looks like I lost a supposedly cold hardy Chicago fig. I'm leaving it for now just in case, but it's dry and brittle all the way down.

Also lost a blue spruce, but it got dumped out of its pot by high winds a couple times late last summer, so that's the more likely culprit there.
I don't suspect that's all, but we'll know in a month.

Temps here never went below our normal lowest, as far as -7, but we got allot more nights like that than normal.

 

[Michigan Tree Murderer]

I lost a Chinese elm & had new leaves frost burnt on a Trident Maple. And I'm not out of the woods yet (pun intended), and I won't feel safe until Memorial day. Once the new leaves got frost burnt two weeks ago I've been two stepping when the lows get near 34F.

 

[leatherback]

This was the first year I gave my cork oak protection.
It dried out and died.

 

[penumbra]

I am so sorry that there was so much destruction. I fared well I think, but another week or so will tell. Normally I shoot ffor Christmas to have all my plants under wraps. Fortunately this past winter I was pretty much done by mid October. I was very fortunate. I was visiting a bonsai buddy today who is in a warmer zone and he said that December really zapped him. I saw a lot of deadwood.

 

[August]

I was frankly expecting to lose all of it; first winter with trees, unsure of my protection, and living in an infamously unpredictable climate even for in-ground trees. I ended up losing just a handful; two dwarf blueberries (which upon closer inspection are zone 6 ), a japanese maple, a fine line buckthorn, and a few perennials. I have a penstemon that has been lush green all winter.

As far as the maybes, theres a holly I'm fairly doubtful will return. Not to mention my very amateur spring repots. We will see...

 

[Jcmmaple]

@Bonsai Nut I too have lost quite a few trees due to crazy NC weather, this is the first time this has happened. We always have had cold snaps but not a 2 week freeze, some of my landscape trees took a bad hit too. At this point I’m confused on how to proceed with next winter, better greenhouse I guess.

 

[TimberLakers]

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.

Appreciate the list. I was curious in particular about cork oak, which needs to move east.

 

[Carol 83]

I had a Powderpuff that was growing like crazy. I've had to prune a couple of times this winter just to keep it from growing into the lights. Inexplicably, all the leaves dried up and I'm pretty sure it's dead. Pretty bummed about it.

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

Lost:
2 princess persimmon in the ground
1 ilex serrata in the ground
35 JM ‘seigen’ cuttings that may have been moved around too much
3 Ezo spruce cuttings (8 years old) that I thought would be fine…though they may have gotten dry
Maybe my 2008 trident maple project tree…still holding out hope.

Everything came in during the Christmas 3-day 9f cold snap, but the mid-March 20s was the nail in the coffin for anything that stayed out.

 

[Jcmmaple]

Lost:
2 princess persimmon in the ground
1 ilex serrata in the ground
35 JM ‘seigen’ cuttings that may have been moved around too much
3 Ezo spruce cuttings (8 years old) that I thought would be fine…though they may have gotten dry
Maybe my 2008 trident maple project tree…still holding out hope.

Everything came in during the Christmas 3-day 9f cold snap, but the mid-March 20s was the nail in the coffin for anything that stayed out.

Sorry about that, sounds like a lot of work and time lost.

 

[ShadyStump]

I had a Powderpuff that was growing like crazy. I've had to prune a couple of times this winter just to keep it from growing into the lights. Inexplicably, all the leaves dried up and I'm pretty sure it's dead. Pretty bummed about it.

I've had a couple gardenias do that to me over winter. In different soils, all treated the same as the others, died at different times. Only thing they have in common is I skipped watering for a day because I thought they were staying too wet. Gone within days after that.

 

[19Mateo83]

I lost a whole crop of 2 year old white oak seedlings, some edible fig trees, some Chinese elm root cuttings, and a couple smaller crepe myrtles which included my discount rack contest entry. Nothing I’m really devastated about. I did bring in my olive, cork oak, dwarf Pom and a few others for the Christmas freeze and the late snap. @Bonsai Nut i have lived here all my life, you can never really know what to expect here, it’s not as cold as it was 20 years ago. I remember we used to get snow and bad ice storms almost every year here back in the 80’s and early 90’s. I have seen it in the low single digits quite a few times.

 

[ajm55555]

I lost 1 young Japanese Maple, which grew without any problem last year (including a pretty hot summer) after going from the ground to a small pot. It just started to bud then probably the cold stopped it and it dried up.
And an older one, chopped up last fall, started to bud this Spring then again, it probably took a few nights around freezing, stopped growing and it's probably dying.

 

[BrightsideB]

I think for me in north Georgia it was that “arctic winter storm” as well that did a number because some of my tree’s didn’t even enter full dormancy and were still losing leaves. I knew I should have just brought them into the garage. Lost some good pre bonsai.