And that is very odd here, too, that despite the long-term snowcover, I've only seen the tracks of one lone deer around my BFEs and conifers, and not even eating them. Last winter, w/a less enduring snowcover, my hollies, conifers and rhodos were pretty much stripped of foliage up to the deers' height limit.

It's different here every year too. Some years the rabbits are nonexistent, and a lot of my plants are getting big enough by now, I don't worry about them, but I keep buying new plants, so the saga continues. :-))

And I never know what winter will bring and the little bit it takes, to do this is well worth it, to see a new plant coming back in a robust manner after a hard winter. It's an 'Up North' thing that not everyone does.

There'll be more to come that I'll post up about later, this is just where it begins for me, every season.

And conifers don't always show damage immediately after it happens, so I generally wait for ground thaw before judging anything.

My nootka cypress looks good, and there was a time when the snow was deep enough, that rabbits could've slipped through the larger holes at the top of the rabbit fence, but they didn't. It's why I like chicken wire better and haven't bought any new rabbit fencing for many years now.

Does that mean rabbits don't like Alaska Cedar? I don't know for sure and I won't stop fencing around it for a few years yet.

12-29-2025:

After the NNW winds piled another heap of snow along the house.

The rabbits didn't start attacking in force until a month or so ago, I suppose because the snow got so deep. Many times, the eat the lower suckers from along the rows of common lilacs until they can't.

2-12-2026:

Snows settled a lot since. Yellow cedar still green but I took a chance there with rabbit fence.

A lot depends upon how hungry the animals get. If the snow melt continues, that will help but it also depends on the overall population on a given year, which some years is way more than others.

Most everything else I'm growing here is fenced or tubed, so if any more bad things happen, it will be winter (cold/sun) damage.

Just to add credibility to some of my previous statements.

Abies Nordmanniana:

After a 46df day with partly cloudy skies, the bent branches popped back up. ;-)

Even the tipped leader straightened out! 😏

The P. Omorika still had snow on it, but it is in the shade this time of year.

But it looks good and at least I know it won't be smashed flat from the snow load.

Now something else.

You all saw the J. communis that the bunnies destroyed earlier this winter.

I then looked at the J. Horizontalis, the only thing missing is an inch or so of the branch tips. Very neatly done and lots of it. These have been out in the open for a few years and never had the bark chewed on them. And there's some pretty thick branches on these.???

One more day of sun and mid 40's melted the snow left on the Serbian spruce. ;-)

Being more in the shade, it took longer.

And yes, you are seeing through the burlap surround. Not sure of the percentage but it blocks around 70% of full sun.

And also yes, it you're from the upper mid-west and have backyard garden things happening that are interesting to share, feel free to post them here. We all learn from each other, don't we.
I'll be adding to this thread too as time goes on. ;-)

"

After a 46df day with partly cloudy skies, the bent branches popped back up. ;-)

Even the tipped leader straightened out!"

Good news Bill! I'm reminded of the story of my Cupressus duclouxiana in the terrible 2014 ice storm. The WHOLE PLANT - all 10' of it at the time, was bent over to a full 90 degrees. It straightened right back up in a month or so, without help! Of course it was still very whippy and thin back then, it would potentially be in more trouble now if we had a similar ice storm.

Your snow shoveling storm is very interesting to me. I am worried about the crush effect you mention, but so far, knock on wood, I'm not really seeing it. I wonder if, because my snow was super dense from the get go, it didn't compress as much after being shoveled. In other words, I wonder if this effect is more of a problem with powdery snow. It seems likely the snow will always compress from the ground up, because, well, that's what would happen anyhow because of gravity LOL, but also because the relative warmth of the soil will cause it to melt there first.

It might depend on the plant but snow, when it falls, builds up little by little, surrounding the entire plant, which supports the plant from tipping.

When the weather warms, most plants come out of it just fine. There might be exceptions.

Our first snow was wet & heavy, and my 15ft. high pine branches and tops were bent over pretty badly, but I left them alone. The wind generally comes up and soon it's gone. I've done more damage trying to remove snow. Pine and spruce will get brittle when frozen or cold, so you have to be careful.

When I shovel extra snow on my smaller plants, I do it soon after it snows and our snow is generally the cold, powdery type.

I wouldn't shovel wet, sticky snow directly onto a smaller plant. Maybe just around the base to cover the roots and lower trunk.

Damage during a snowstorm, is caused mostly from the wind, with heavy, sticky snow that bends the plant over then additional snow piles on and 'pins' it down. Not much you can do about that. Staking beforehand would help.

When covering smaller plants with powdery snow, I hold the shovel above the plant and sort of shake the shovel, so the snow falls almost naturally, albeit heavily, so it builds up around the entire plant in layers like it would during a snowstorm.

No more than needed to cover the plant.

Most plants will come out of that kind of covering just fine on their own.

Evaporation from the sun and I believe snow melts from the top because that's where the sun and warmer air contact it. * Both of the plants I uncovered recently had a hard shell on top with loose, sugar snow under that.

Same when I walked across the frozen crust across the yard, if I broke through, the snow underneath was loose and sugary.

Maybe a huge pile might freeze further down from the sheer weight causing friction underneath.

This year, we had a lot of snow events, some wet, some powder, then freeze, thaw this all on top of what I shoveled onto the plant.

So, I wasn't sure how my two new, not so common (for up here) plants would do.

I think they would've been fine, but now I know.

I suppose with your camellias, even grafted, would be protected, if the snow covered the base and above the graft? Will they resprout from the base again?

* JTA: The ground has to be cold enough to support snow. If you get a snow on warm ground, then if may melt at the bottom too, unless temperatures really drop.

Fortunately there's very little need for camellias to be grafted here, because the vast majority of them are root rot resistant, it seems. There is one nursery that happens to graft, and I have a couple of their plants. Because we stayed well above 0F which seems to be the turning point for a lot of camellias, I'm not worried about any of them dying back that far.

But indeed... considering, for example, my grafted rhodies, I would have been worried about making sure the graft was protected if it hadn't snowed. I have a plan, of course. If there's ever a forecast for 0F or below here, w/o snow cover, I will take some sand and mound it around the graft union, and keep my fingers crossed.

The one I'd be most worried about is my Rhododendron 'Medusa', which is probably the most borderline hardy one I grow, but unfortunately has to be grafted here. But of the traditional pre-1980s hybrids, it's by far the best orange. So kind an essential plant to have for me!

cf https://www.houzz.com/discussions/6491992/now-here-s-a-rhody-that-even-pam-will-like

I talk about digging it up and keeping it in a pot in that thread, but rhodies don't like to be in pots around here, even grafted. It actually did really well with snow cover, so at least there's that. The main branch dying back last winter is likely related to going down to 2F or so. Its hardiness might be right around 5F.

Hey Bill, I planted three Picea omorica at my mom's place in Long Prairie many years ago. I think one of them had an ongoing issue with the leader and might have been removed, but as far as I know the other two are doing great and are now pretty big. (A viewing could be arranged if you were so inclined).

UBG,

Now that I think about it, I used to stake my small Tsuga's the first couple years when they were prone to be flattened by snow load. I used a slim skewer type stick about a foot long and just tied it at the base and further up at the top with a length of string.

I didn't drive the stake into the ground, but it added enough support so the trunk wouldn't bend easily.

Art,

I was thinking, next summer if I'm in the area, I could shoot you a text,

Same number you gave me last year?

Otherwise, I go to St. Cloud in June and could take the loop around to Sauk Centre, then up to Long Prairie on the way home. Maybe then.

It would be fun! ;^)

Thanks!

Update: 2-15-2026:

The continued warm weather made my 'stakes' around the P. Abies unstable and less than adequate.

As I kept an eye on it and winter progressed, the rabbits were getting more aggressive and biting off more and bigger branches. This tree could've gotten really bad by spring.

So, I could sleep at night I surrounded the tree with chicken wire taken from lower priority items around the yard.

I'll still have to watch it; I only had one steel stake and that's the only one strong enough to penetrate the ground when I hammered it in. It'll do for now.

Glad I caught it when I did.

🫤🌲

Your rabbits sound evil!

I've never seen them this bad, ever!

They're munching on the lower branches of the mature white spruce now.

I see the Taunton yew has a few branchlets clipped off.

But it's not my job to train them in. ;^)

Bill, I was going to offer to send my mom up there to help with those rabbits (she's a crack shot) but I see you have a lot of neighbors that are way too close for critter shooting! /s. Rabbits and squirrels are in grave danger if they dare enter her garden.

(I taught mom how to shoot around 2000, and I have not picked up a firearm again since that day.....but mom certainly has!)

haha! I wish Art!

It's against city law to fire a gun inside city limits, but an old neighbor, who's gone now, was said to be seen heading back to his house, carrying a .22 rifle discreetly alongside his leg, after a shot was heard.

Since I've been here, I occasionally hear a .22 shot from somewhere around me.

For me, it's less expensive to buy chicken wire than pay the fine. lol:

With this high of a population of rabbits. I'd expect the plague (tularemia) to hit soon. 🤞

2-16-2026:

Another sunny day in the 40's, the snow is going fast.

Some thoughts while outside today.

I'm finally beginning to see shade daily, for several hours now, during wintertime. Increasingly reducing the need for sunshades on every single new plant that I buy to keep it from winter burning.

Below the new Juniperus Chinensis getting natural shade at solar high noon today.

The shadows continue later in the day with the trees along the west side.

Even the pine grove, is supplying the eastern hemlock with more and more winter shade.

As soon as shade persists in this area, until middle of April (a couple years?), I'll have one less Fall chore to do.

re: Snow smashing.

The Taxus canadensis came out of the snow in good shape. And I had piles extra snow on this one several times this winter. Winter broze color now.

The Nordmann fir is completely out of the snow and with the P. abies emergency under control, I'm not expecting any further problems. ;-)

Heavy rain forecast tomorrow night with some snow on Wednesday.

2-17-2026:

The unprotected J.H. 'Hughes' has no rabbit damage at all, not even nipping the exposed tips.

Must be something rabbits like about the common juniper? 🤨

No further interest in the pine either.

2-19-26:

Today, after 5 days of melting temperatures, the Thuja plicata 'Virescens' that was tilted sideways, a good 20d from the snow load, straightened back up last night.

The horizontal stake I slid in to support it helped but I probably should've put another stake at 90d to that one. But it's all good now.

The above plant is zone pushing here, but the problem hasn't been cold temperatures.

Last Fall we had 80's well into October within a week after that, we had a hard freeze.

These are known to not be 'Frost Hardy' and it took some 'nips' on the branch tips.

So, another winter under the snow is fine but another late frost this spring could damage it further, weakening the tree. Stay tuned.

Being this was a 'preliminary report' and tomorrow is the last day of meteorological winter,

any further developments about winter damage, will be posted in my 'Winter Protection Thread' that I started last Fall, as a follow-up for that thread.

Thanks all!

:^)