Winter Damage

By Skeeter The sun is shining in my Georgia Garden today! A perfect time to take inventory of any damage the weekend snow fall may have caused. Above is the picture of my favorite Azalea Bush weighted down with snow. As you can see, she is a tough girl as she is once again standing tall with no damage! The Azalea's in the woods, even though protected a bit from the trees above, had a white blanket on them as well. Now standing tall and proud! I was not too worried about the front planters as the Camellia and Japanese Maples are stout thus, looked as though they were holding their own. However, the Nandina was a mere blob under the heavy snow. Upright she stands today! The snow really did weigh heavy on the Nandina's and I just knew there would be damage. But no damage could be seen by my eyes! The branches of the bush are pretty flexible to say the least. The snow covered planters were really pretty covered in white. I am thrilled to see them happy in the shining sun today! The Butterfly Bushes were so full of snow they were lying on the ground as if dead for sure. But a few hours with warm sunshine on them, and they sprung back to life as well... Since we do not normally have such snow falls in our neck of the woods, we do not own a snow shovel. In order to keep the snow off the front walk way to the house which faces north, I was sweeping the snow off with a broom every 40 minutes or so. One time as I was sweeping I heard this awful snapping. I turned to see this tree fall into our yard. Yikes, good thing we postponed our planned Virginia trip over the long weekend. We now had work to tend instead of playing. Arggggg, it never ends around here... The snow continued to fall after the tree was lying on the ground. It was a pretty piece of art work made by nature but must not stay in place. This tree is always the first to drop her leaves in the fall. I do not think she was healthy for a long time. She was leaning really badly towards our yard. I have talked about this tree in the past. If you missed that Posting, Click HERE to see the Winged Elm's story. As you can see, the tree was practically uprooted. The Elm was sitting in a pool of water. Look at the puddle under the root ball. We have had excessive amounts of rain fall the past several months and this ares is where the rain drains or should I say does not drain properly like most of our backyard. The tree is actually over our back fence and belongs to the land owners behind our property. They do not have a house on this land as it belongs to nature for now. So we decided to not bother the land owner and remove the tree ourselves. It also knocked over the fence post so we will repair that as well. We spent the day cutting the smaller branches and twigs and relocating them to the brush pile. The yard is so soggy that we were making ruts in the ground with the wheel barrow. We have decided that since the tree is arched and not too much of her is touching the ground, that we will leave her be for now. We fear we will do more damage to the yard if we cut up large heavy logs with the ground being so fragile. We will wait until the yard dries a bit to remove her. Gee, that condo living is sure looking good right about now. hee hee... Lookie lookie what I spotted today! The first bloom on a Spirea! Also the trees are budding! And my most happiest moment was when I spotted this bud on a Daffy! I never have luck with daffodils returning for me so I am most excited to see this bud...
Here are some of my friends that were not bothered by the white stuff falling last Friday evening.

Over all, One tree lost but no more WINTER DAMAGE, In the Garden...

Words and Photos Property of In the Garden Blog Team, In the Garden

Name that Tree!

Last week I posted about a tree at the edge of our property line which is dropping its leaves making it appear that Fall is here in Georgia.

The tree itself seem to be a mystery tree as no one could identify it. I was taking a stab and calling it an Elm of some sort but others debated that guess. So I snapped some more pictures so as to get a better peek of our mystery tree.
This tall guy has a grayish color to his long trunk. This is the direct front of the tree that faces our property. This tree is really not our tree as it sits just over the barbed wire that belongs to the land owners behind us. I have never seen these land owners so we pretty much take care of the trees and limbs that fall into our yard from this area. I kind of think of these trees as belonging to us even though they do not. From the side view, you can see another tree growing right up beside this tall guy with some sort of vine growing up its trunk. I am guessing the vine will lead to another posting some time in the future...

The tree was too tall for me to grab a leaf but since he is still dropping them, I found a pretty good yellowing, green specimen.
I placed a Sweet Gum Ball beside the leaf so you can get a scope of the small leaf size. Pictures can be so deceiving at times. I can make a tiny bloom look like a giant with a zoom lens! Any guesses yet?

I pulled my tree book out and upon a closer look I do believe I have identified this handsome guy. Here is a closer look of the leaf.
Here is a small twig of the tree that I found on the ground. Now surely from this little clue, someone will know what type of tree this is....
A closer view of the winged bark on the small twig. Now if that clue did not tell you what type tree this is, then you are not familiar with this type tree.
From looking in my tree book and seeing the winged bark on the branches, I believe this tree to be a Winged Elm!

Winged elm (Ulmus alata), also called corked elm or wahoo elm, can be distinguished from other elms by the woody, wing-like growths along the branchlets.

A Google search reveals, The wood is very flexible and springy but is also hard and resists splitting. It is categorized as a rock elm or hard elm and is used in flooring, boxes, crates, furniture, rocking chairs or curved pieces and is the wood of choice for hockey sticks, due to its resistance to splitting. The fibrous inner bark is used to make baling twine.

It provides a nutritious browse for white-tailed deer, especially in the spring, when the vegetation is tender and most easily digested. The seeds are eaten by rodents, small mammals, and numerous birds.

Winged elm is a native species, found throughout the southeastern corner of the United States, from southern Virginia, west to the Ohio valley and Texas, and south into Florida.
Ah, Mystery solved! Did anyone know this Winged Elm before now?

There sure was a beautiful blue sky the day I was trying to NAME THAT TREE, In the Garden...