Got pinecones? There's a-pulenty of them in the region. The EWP enjoyed the heavy rains we've had this year, and let loose with a bumper crop. My poor Rose of Sharon. While cleaning up the bed it's in, I noticed a crack in the trunk. 2 years too late in pruning. The heavy flower display caught the heavy rains and put added stress on it. Nothing showing on this side But on the other - I think I need to remove the entire right side of the fork. Just below the sprout of a branch. If I don't, the crack will most likely travel to the root ball, if it hasn't already. That RoS has been in that location for >35yrs. Another 20 before that, at the edge of my father's veggie garden.
I've heard that it has been a very good year for pine cones and the squirrels are stashing them away (or mounding them against boulders). Acorn production is very light this year around here so they have adjusted their food source. It is amazing to me how Mother Nature seems to rotate mast years between food sources like that so it normally isn't boom or bust, just a pivot. Sorry about your RoH and hope you can save it with judicious pruning and care.
I'd wrap and tie it up w/ rope. I had some similar stuff happening with a Japanese red maple and I wrapped the bad spot in camo rope, then tied rope to both sides several feet up. That's been many years ago and the bad spot has healed up. I plan to leave the rope though.
On November 8 of this year my Thanksgiving cactus bloomed and it was all done before Thanksgiving. At that time there were mostly salmon colored flowers with 1 light pink flower. Imagine my surprise yesterday when I noticed it has started blooming again and has several buds on it. So far the flowers are of the light pink variety. I didn't put my readers on and thought I had gotten more buds than the two in the picture, but just imagine you can see them at the tips toward the bottom of the picture. Oh, and Spot was curious as to why the plant was suddenly on the kitchen counter instead of in the window
Well, I went ahead and dealt with my crack problem. (Take it any way you want to) I trimmed back the one side and cut the trunk. There was rot in the center. I scraped out as much as I could. I then cut back the whole thing hard. It doesn't look bad from the above angle. But, it's all on one side. Other angles I've had great results from a hard pruning like that. If I don't like how it responds, I'll cut it all down and select which of the saplings around it to favor.
An inch of snow fell last night. Here's a few things it landed on Spirea Rhodies EWP Blueberry bush Different blueberry Cedar Winter berries, or what's left of them. It looked like a bloody crime scene around the bird feeder from whatever ate them and then deposited the remains.
I took a few pictures around the yard over the last couple weeks... Pink camellias Daffodil I think a flowering quice... Hyacinths Not sure, but has a citrus smell Large red camellias Need to prun e the camellias back this year...lol...I think there's a house in there somewhere... The blueberry bushes are loaded with blooms Plum trees are blooming too. Hope we don't get a late freeze
