Return to the Shrubs Forum
| Post a Follow-Up
Snow loaded winter color shrub
| | |
Posted by isabella__ma z5_MA (My Page) on Sun, Feb 7, 10 at 8:30
| Hi,
Okay here's my situation... I have a roadside garden on small berm that gets walloped in winter with snow. The city plows pile up snow on this location, and when I shovel the driveway I also pile my snow there. The snow mound during the last Nor'Easter was about an 8 foot high monolith to the glory of nature. Currenly (Feb 2010)there is vinca minor groundcover, dormant hosta, bulbs, daylillies, and a annebelle hydrangea, which can take the snow loading. I planted a compact dogwood there (keilsy cultivar ), which I hoped would be able to stand the snow load, but with some thawing, the branches have been snapped. It was newly planted last spring (2009).
My desired plant characteristics would be; winter interest, can take snow loading, and compact.
I've been experimenting with nandina, which have been doing surprisingly well (no leaf drop yet). Would that be a good choice or simply give up and let the snow loading "coppice" my dogwood each year? |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Snow loaded winter color shrub
| | |
| hey the depth of the snow .. is most likely not important ... its how the snow is delivered there.. and the snow plows on our roads are not what i call gentle ... they tend to take out 4 x 4 posts holding mailboxes ... i figure you are going to be hard pressed to find anything that can avoid the impact of a large truck going 30 to 50 mph down the road throwing snow at a tiny plant ... perhaps what you have is the best there is.. since it is close to the ground ... what are you trying to accomplish.. and why cant you do it closer to the house ... away from what might be called the 'kill zone' ??? good luck ken |
RE: Snow loaded winter color shrub
| | |
| I don't have a front lawn here just a driveway with borders on either side. This small berm is part of landscape design, and the redtwig (dwarf) is on the slope. It was chosen to add foreground to the other redtwigs (stolon.) behind them and in front of the neighbors arb. screen hedge. It also obscures/distracts from the grey twigs of a Wine and rose weigela out of the kill zone. Kill zone is aptly named. The snow plows really toss it around, and the shrub damage forensic analysis is consistent with this scenario. I was hoping for a shrub that can take a lickin' and keep on tickin' , which would rule out any woody type of shrub. |
RE: Snow loaded winter color shrub
| | |
| I have a similar area at the end of my driveway, as most of us do. In my kill zone the worry is not only the snow load and the force of the plow, but also the road salt. My most recent solution for the kill zone has been Montauk Daisy. It can take drought and salt in the soil, and I just cut it to the ground in the fall, leaving the area bare for the winter months. The only problem with it is that it doesn't bloom until the end of September. But at least the area has some foliage for the summer months, and I also plant annuals in front to spruce things up. Another nice thing about the Montauk Daisy is that they propagate so easily. You can literally break off a branch, stick it in the soil, walk away, and it will root and flourish. |
RE: Snow loaded winter color shrub
| | |
| i think you ought to be thinking about large.. fast growing annuals ... sunflowers??? castor bean?? maybe you should try the perennial forum for ideas ... ken |
Here is a link that might be useful: bean there.. done that ...
RE: Snow loaded winter color shrub
| | |
| I think what you've got there is fine. Dogwoods can certainly take an annual coppicing, the best red twigs are the new growth. |
|
|
|
|
