I live in Upstate NY - near the Canadian border - yes, WAY upstate - Zone 4a! I wanted to post some pictures of the ice storm that we had around Christmas. Many of our trees were destroyed - seriously. I have a White Pine that I loved - blocked the view of the house - that is basically sheared away in the middle. Still not sure what we are going to do with this. Many trees were just snapped. My Tamarack snapped and the top ten feet of the tree broke off. Three Red Cedars almost done for. Poplars that were sheared. I will be honesty and say it is hard for me to go back and look at these pictures. Almost two months later now we have cut and chipped some limbs (figured we better get started on this early) that are already on the ground. The big Black Cherry we had to skid out with the 4-wheeler and we cut down the remaining truck and skidded that out too. We have had quite a bit of snowfall as of late so getting in there with the chipper is not possible now. When we bought this property it hadn't been maintained all that well in the last few years. We have worked hard the last three years sprucing it up and to see this act of God hurt. It is ironic to me because I know how obsessed, literally, I have been with it and to watch God allow it to be cut down in a matter of days - wow! Maybe He is trying to tell me something - more important things in life???? My DH kept telling me it could have been worse - tree through the roof, etc. - he is right I know but still hard for me to swallow - I loved all the work we had done. If anyone has any suggestions as far as what to do with these - obviously some have to be cut to the ground - I'd appreciate to hear anyone's opinion. White Pine Before/During Ice Storm - entire middle section is pretty much missing. You can see the snapped branches - I couldn't believe how many I hauled out of there that were just snapped off. Tamarack with top ten feet snapped out of it. Next to White Pine in above picture. Three Red Cedars as the ice storm was just starting/and now. Black Cherry Limb snapped off - honestly, this is the only one I really did want gone. Back of the house: You can see the White Birch that is hanging toward the house in the center and over another smaller red cedar. This tree is really three trunks and I imagine we will be cutting it down this Spring. The one limb never went all the way back up and the other two trunks are snapped at the tops.

Good afternoon everyone----just got in from the yard, boy do I need to rake and trim. C.Myrtles with broken branches, lilacs with broken branches, and I am not sure my cherished Japanese maple will make it this year. I think the long extended drought got my azalea as well. On the bright side, day lillies, jonquils, hyacinths are coming up and looking pretty good compared to what we have been through. My roses are trying to bud out, I could not believe it but I figure I will lose most of the new growth to the elements or my pruning in the up coming month. Thats okay, I am moving most of the plants this year anyway. I am having a new section of fence put in and plan on trying a water feature. Susan and Randy: I bought seeds for butterfly habitat! Okay, so maybe this could be a little addicting but I have visions of a solid bed for the butterflies and hummers in the back yard by my weeping peach tree. I am practicing my poor photography skills to try to get pixs to share. My DH asked me to get somemore Mr. Lincoln roses for the front yard. He loves those roses. And of course his standard coleus for under the oak tree. He loves those the most so I fix him up a little piece of ground just for him. He doesn't actually garden but he loves to drive in the driveway at night and see the coleus waiting on him. Okay, so that was probably TMI but I decided to share. Been looking at the pixs of New York in the snow. Although I still think the ice is much worse than snow. Had relatives live in Maine and they did tell me you have to shovel your roof to keep them from collapsing if the snow is to heavy. Shot I dont even shovel the drive here much less the roof. She also told me she hated the fact you could not grow okra and usually only got a small crop of tomatoes due to the cold weather. Mike Morgan reminded everyone last week we just have 6 weeks to the official beginning of spring. However, I have found over the years that my grandmother told me wait until Easter. She had a theory that we always had a cold front the week of Easter. She had a very green thumb but I dont have that kind of patience. But be prepared Wednesday, we may have some snow, so as the commercial says, "Buy that bread". I just hold my breath that the power stays on, my daughter and grandkids were in Woodward when they lost power for several days, it was really rough on everyone. Glad to meet some old members who are coming back. Look forward to checking the forum daily.

I was in Salina back in April of 2013 and an ice storm rolled through. Freezing rain is something I have never encountered here in Denver and I was pretty amazed at the solid sheet of ice covering everything. All the guys I was working with out there, were laughing at me cuz I was out there with my snow scraper trying to chip the ice off my windshield...apparently they knew something I didn't. Course, they could have shared their useful bit of information instead of asking me "You're not from the Midwest are you?"

I was just reading about that, supposedly some of the commercial bamboo places top some of their boos to prevent this from happening. It seems to happen to the first years growth, at least that's what I've noticed myself. I had to use a machete to cut some of them off (the ones by the road). Not sure what kind you have though.