Glad to hear everything came out okay, beng.

Freezing rain instead of snow, may have done even more damage.

The snow here was not sticky with fine flakes but they stayed on the tree branches because almost no wind. Wind is forecast the next few days, that generally clears the branches.

We've only had a couple of light dustings that disappeared almost immediately, But ooohh, mamma, is it cold out there!! Mind you, I live in the usually balmy PNW in a zone 8b/9a - rarely do we even get much frost in winter. This morning we are in the teens and even into single digits and it is not expected to get above freezing until after the weekend. A bit north of me, they receive more winds and the wind chill is in the subzero range. -6F in Bellingham!!

I just recently moved and all my plants are in containers. Normally I would have no concerns but conditions are not at all normal so who knows what will survive and what will not.......

Gardengal, can you find any straw? You can pile that around your pots, if you haven’t already.

ETA: Yesterday was 70, next Wednesday morning is to be 8. Today is 70mph winds, rain, and tornados.

Yes, last year hit 3 degrees and next week to hit 5. We often have some winter days in ‘ terms but the near- zero is unusual. Lost several valuable shrubs, decades- old huge camellia that will not be replaceable in my lifetime ( I plan to get a couple of the more cold- hardy ones in spring, but the size of the old one won’t be achieved). Also groundcovers took a huge beating, & took all year to recover, and these are in full view so had to look at ratty growth all year.

I love that you have a southwestern white pine.

There used to be a pretty one on the campus of William and Mary, but it was removed for a new building and I'm sure not replanted. After Dr. Baldwin died in 1974, the campus totally lost its vision as a place for pioneering horticulture. Really sad because the climate has a lot of potential. (As far south on the east coast as that species would likely grow, for one thing!) But probably inevitable as it had never had a professional horticulture program and thus Baldwin was an outlier among the faculty. He planted the coast redwoods and various other rare species.

davidrt, older brother went to William and Mary on a football scholarship. The few times I visited we always took the Anheuser-Busch brewery "tour" which included sampling. :)

41 North, I'd say it has alot to do w/moisture content/stickiness of the snow. This past one, the snow was like glue (as you can see from the pics). I had a huge single snowfall in Feb 2010 of 35", then 7" more 2 days later, but trees including my Southern mag had no problems -- snow just mostly fell off.

BTW, there's already some flooding here w/some water in the basement and springhouse.

What I find amazing about many cultivars of M. grandiflora is how they respond to HEAVY snow. After a very heavy snow, all the branches will bend well to the ground. Then, the sun comes out, and gradually you see all the branches slowly lifting back into their normal positions. It is my very favorite visual part of winter.

P.S., Record already broken for over 700 plus days with no measurable snow on the ground. I am NOT complaining!

I have two large white pines between the house and the road, one of them had a large lower branch down. I can't tell if it's broken or just weighted down by the snow pile its ends are buried in. I went out there and knocked as much snow as I could off the lower part of the pines, lots of hanging branches weighed down by icy-snow, was concerned the high winds would take them out. All is fine now except that one branch, but it's on the bottom so even if I have to cut it off it doesn't affect the shape of the tree.

We have a large deciduous tree down right behind our property blocking the trails that provides access to the parkland. I could call the park authority to see if they will clean it up, technically it's on their property, but I don't know if they clear access trails leading to personal property or just the main trails. Regardless, it would probably get cleaned up a whole lot faster if DH just took it with his chainsaw.

Noticed some trees down here and there around town, and the guy across the road had his tree split pretty much down the middle, but really not all that much damage overall. My got hammered in August 2022 during the severe storm, I figure most of what was teetering on coming down came down at that time so it's not been too bad since then. (= fewer power outages from downed trees)