Jerry, thanks for your comments. It seems odd to me these two otherwise healthy potted specimens are sitting showing absolutely no sign of breaking dormancy. My other deciduous potted plants, which remain in cold storage, are rapidly expanding their buds and anxious to get growing! I did scratch a bit of bark from the elms and all looks green and healthy. If soon I don't see any signs of growth, I'll otherwise hold off on grafting and wait till I can secure other elm rootstock ... Terry

I was aware of DED resistant American elm selections for awile. But when I visited Brookings, SD, I was shocked to see a large number of very tall elms of great diameter. They were all over the place. This was the most abundant tree species in older properties. I could see no dying or sick elms during the months that I was there, and I was looking for them closely. DED had not become prevalent in that city yet. It was magnificent, like stepping back in time. (I will post pictures later). In contrast, our town has had DED for 15 years and the most elms are dying or dead. The row of elms a block from our house declined and died in the past 5 years. Seeing all the healthy trees showed me what a truly wonderful species this species truly was. All trees I had seen were declining until then. So that brings me my question What is a reliable source for good-quality DED resistant American elm selections. "Princeton", "Valley Forge" and "New Harmony", and how adaptable are they to the climate of South Dakota? I want one of each, preferably in tube sizes, because we donÂt have the budget to ship a bigger tree for the next few years because we have other landscaping projects. We are in the native range of the species and they can clearly thrive here, but these selections are from kinder climates. Some sources only list these selections to zone 5. Will they grow, and where can I get quality tube sizes? Thanks

No. If the stem is broken through, it won't heal. Trees, especially young ones, can "heal"/callous-over bark wounds, but a broken or splintered stem is done for. It MIGHT resprout from the roots, if the root system is a good one. It's worth clipping off the stem cleanly, and continuing to monitor it. Water it less than the other two, without letting it dry out, since it presently has little or no top growth to support and so needs less water. You have nothing to lose, but a little time, in seeing if it will make it. I'm sorry for your mishap. Have you figured out what happened? It might have been something as simple as a squirrel running over the pots - but putting up some sort of barrier might prevent damage to the other two.

Yeah, you'll be good either way. I don't believe in any ratio, ie 30%, etc. of live crown. Each tree is too much an individual thing, plus, so much of my background is in municipal forestry, where we have to accommodate competing interests, leading to my having seen literally thousands upon thousands of trees, perhaps pruned a bit too heavily, still bounce back as though nothing had happened. That said, you've got the right idea, and if you want to take it a little slower, all the better. As to straightening out, this gets a little nuanced for some folks. Basically, a new tree is going to grow over the outside (but within the bark, of course)of that old tree, this, and all growing seasons to come. So no tissue already in place is going to change its orientation, but new growth will nevertheless drastically change how that tree occupies its spot. Gravity and phototropism are the two big forces which cause trees to grow more or less at right angles to the earth's surface they happen to be located on. Obvious exceptions are where a tree is overhung by other trees or shade-producing objects, where you'll see them arching out away from whatever it is shading them. Trees along river banks are a classic example. But that too is phototropism. Anyway, I think that very generally, the tree will appear to "straighten up". I had a linden tree on the terrace one time, where the property owner didn't like that it had a little streetward sway in the trunk. The tree had already been there for maybe 8 or 10 years, and she couldn't believe I couldn't just push on it to get it "straight"! But the point is, nobody would ever look at that tree today and know this had ever been a (perceived) problem. It's crown-reaching for light-is perfectly aligned, the trunk has fattened considerably, and that little tiny sway is hidden deep inside. I think your tree will do roughly the same, with the one caveat being that we can't predict what other storm winds, etc. may still mess with it in the future.