Did you have a drought this year? How did you fare? My Review.

7 years ago

Keeping in mind I kinda use this board as an archive of the life and times of my trees, this can be boring to others. It's a bit for myself to document what I take care off.

This has been a hellaciously dry year here in between DC and Annapolis, in my micro-climate yard. (Yes, "micro-climate" according to NCPP.) Sometimes as many as 2 weeks without rain.

My 6' tall Corillium lost all its leaves and is just starting to rebud. Not on all the branches, but at least some. I was afraid it was history. In the same garden, though, Waterfall and Green Cascade thrived, as did a Grandma Ghost in a pot, set into the garden!

My Red Pygmy, Brocade and Kamagata had a lot of singed leaves, as did my Iijima Sunago, Tamukeyama, Oregon Sunset, Lozita and Sanzanami. Insane.

Many of my new, 2-year grafts have survived and will be appropriately potted when they go dormant, but oh, man, it was tough keeping them moist.

A Sun Valley I bought too late to plant has struggled, but kept in the shade and watered, it'll go in the ground once dormant. I'm sure it's Terribly root bound. The Red Sunset, Autumn Blaze, Brandywine, and Somerset I treated for borers responded with incredible growth. The beeches I treated for their borers responded well, but the largest tree is still recovering. (I hate to say "struggling.) The American white birches show no sign of blight at this point. The Volubile and Beni schichihenge underneath them seem to be thriving as well.

Interestingly enough, although they get too much sun and green terribly, my two Fireballs, Trompenburg, Okagami, Sherwood Flame, Burgundy Lace and Chantilly Lace had surprisingly little leaf curling and I think will continue to thrive. My Otaki, which I don't believe to be a Japonicum 'Otaki' didn't like the sun and showed my by not growing, but it didn't die, nor have any leaf burn. Hmm.

Aoba Jo, Tana, and Emperor I are doing well.

The Aconitifolium, Vitifolium, Kinran, Attaryi, and Bonfire I planted last fall have survived full sun with nice, new growth. The Boskoop Glory I moved out of a clay soil (previous year's planting) showed definite happiness with its new location.

Butterfly didn't care about anything.
My Oshi Beni, Inaba Shidare, Garnet, and Winter Flame seem to have done very well in full sun, but Oh, I can't wait until the bigger trees can do their job and make shade!

The ones that stayed the best red in full sun are the Fireballs, Trompenburg, and Emperor I. Okagami gave it a good go, but in September, finally greened. Sherwood Flame did the same.

Now we'll see how the 68 I have in pots do over this winter. It's always a crap shoot, although after my visit from Owen Reich last year, I've had a lot better health of my trees. It's amazing what a little bug prevention and fertilizer will do! LOL!

How did your garden grow?

Comments (4)

cearbhaill (zone 6b Eastern Kentucky)
7 years ago
Drought = water bill around here. I refuse to let my plants suffer.
hairmetal4ever
7 years ago
I'm in Howard county, Maryland, and although we've had several 2 to 3 week dry spells all season, we always ended up getting a good rain after that.

So on an annual basis, we're around where we need to be, it just seems like we go Two or three weeks, then we get 2 to 3 inches of rain catching us back up.
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gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
7 years ago
I guess it might depend on what is considered a 'drought' :-) Low summer rainfall is standard in my area (the Puget Sound area of the PNW). We receive very little natural rainfall from June through August - this year only about 2.5 inches (and less than a quarter inch total in August!!) compared to an average for the area of just over 3 inches for the same time span. So "summer drought" is a routine occurrence here, although we seldom generate the same sort of heat that you east coasters do. I'm not sure exactly how that compares with what other areas along the east coast or midwest experienced but I'd bet it is quite comparable or even less rainfall than what you experienced.

We take it in stride :-) Most gardens here are irrigated to some degree, but not heavily. I don't tend to water established inground trees much during this period as they seem to have adapted to this seasonal shortage just fine, even the Japanese maples. Only if we go for weeks on end without measurable precipitation, then maybe a single deep soaking. Containerized trees are another matter and I water mine thoroughly pretty frequently, maybe every third day during our dry season.

I think it may really boil down to what is considered "normal" or typical for your area. If you usually get adequate rainfall during the warm summer months, established trees have adapted to that pattern and when that rainfall is lacking, they react adversely. Here, it is a yearly routine so local trees have adapted to that summer dry pattern and just keep on chugging!!
User
7 years ago
At my place, we had a drier than normal June. May & June is when we normally get most of our rain for the season. We were all bracing for a normal hot & dry July and August like usual, but that's when it started raining. Not just normal rains but 1" to 4" rains every time we figured we needed it. First time in a few years we had enough rain for everything to progress all summer without suffering from dryness.

Did you have a drought this year? How did you fare? My Review.

Comments (4)

cearbhaill (zone 6b Eastern Kentucky)

hairmetal4ever

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gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)

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