Pity the Beaten, Broken Junipers.

3-11-10 SHORT HILLS: I started the clean up of broken and maimed shrubs. I spent two days pruning the junipers by the driveway and hauling away three car loads of branches. A number of places had major branches cracked but not completely broken. I propped those branches up with crutches made from old fence rails in hopes that they might stabilize. There are spots on other junipers where cracked limbs healed. I also cut down, chopped up and hauled away broken bamboo.

The split rail fence had a broken post and several broken rails from the weight of snow laden branches. Yesterday was fence mending day, I replaced three posts, two of which were rotted and loose, and nine rails for three new sections. Doing it now, when plants are still mostly dormant, gets the job done with the least trauma.

Spring Snowflake, Leucojum vernum, looks a lot like a Snow Drop but is different. Compare it to the picture in the last post.

San José tomorrow.

New blooms: Spring Snowflake.


Spring Snowflake, Leucojum vernum