Very Late Spring - Don't Give-Up!

Hi all. I'm rejoining after a long hiatus. I used to be a member when the the IBC was an email list. I much prefer the forum.

Our winter in Massachusetts was unseasonably cold this year. Until this week, I thought I had lost two beautiful maples. One, a thick - trunked Trident that I bought as pre - bonsai stock and have been training for 20 years; the second, a lovely triple - trunk Japanese maple that I had for about 5 years. During the 20 years I've owned it, the Trident maple has always budded - out in mid to late March. This year there was no sign of life and it remained so until last week when I noticed some buds were showing green. I crossed my fingers and transplanted it (it was due) and fed it with some gentle fish emulsion fertilizer. Today, I returned from a long weekend away and was greeted by swollen, reddening buds on my "old friend"! I may start calling it "Lazarus".

The Japanese maple, unfortunately has no sign of life and I'm confident it is deceased.

The motto of my story: don't give - up too soon. I continued watering long after their usual budding time "just in case", and I'm glad I did.

Welcome back! Yes, the pictures are a great advantage over the mailing list . . . but we've grown so large now, we've lost some of that small-town community feeling.

I probably "knew" you back in that day, but your screen name offers now hits. And that's fine. Look forward to seeing pictures of your maples -- and don't give up hope on the Japanese maple.

Thanks! I was more of a lurker than a poster on the old list-serve. However, I still have and wear my IBC '99 shirt from time to time! Your name is one of the few I recognize from the old list. I'll post photos of the maples if I can figure out how.

carausilus that is a good way to think i'm also in mass and i had a larch that was so slow behind the rest i thought it was gone and still was watering it then noticed buds started popping green some not all so lets see if if makes it when the heat starts to roll threw the state

Carausilas,

I'm in the Chicago area and was just tossing out some "dead" trees this weekend when I saw a small live bud on a collected Euonymous. It's not a great tree but at least it will get another season on this earth. It made me go back and look at the others but they were all truly dead - what a tough Winter!

Jay

Ive still got some 4-5 year olds from seed Im waiting on. They're all still green when I peek under the bark but no buds at all. Im not too worried yet cause some trees and bushes around the neighbourhood are just starting to show signs of life. Brutal winter.

Mike

i am in maine and i diddnt see hardly any bud break until ealry may. maples, spirea, crabs, elms were barely pushing buds the first week of may, and nothing from my privets, azeleas, and boxwoods, i left state for 2 weeks and i came home a couple days ago and apparently as soon as i stopped checking on them the went crazy, now almost all the flowers on my crabs and azeleas have dropped or are wilting. damn northeast winters  

UPDATE. My trident maple did quite well this year after its late start in mid-May. My favorite, multi-trunk Japanese Maple was another story. Even though I was convinced that my Japanese Maple was dead, I continues to water its lifeless corpse and even fertilized it. Around Father's Day (mid June), I decided to cut off the dead wood in search of live wood. All the branches came off and were dead to their bases. I then cut down the multiple trunks one internode at a time. At last, about two nodes away from the juncture of the multiple trunks, I hit live wood. I sealed the cuts and continues watering and fertilizing. By the end of June I had buds popping at the bases of the old trunks. For the remainder of tbe growing season, I have had leggy growth from multiple buds. I am hopeful that the new growth will survive the winter so that I can get a full year of growth and shaping next year.

Again, I have learned not to give-up too soon on my trees. They are rresilient. In early May, I was convinced I had lost two trees, when in fact all eventually survived.