Will it survive?

Sundance is not as hardy as normal choisya. I assume snow has long gone now ?

 

Ok everyone, to put the record straight. There are pop bottles in my house, my husband drinks that paint stripper stuff........Pepsi! The only thing I drink is water, nothing else and haven't done for fifteen years or so. It's not the sugar......it was a stomach bug, for some reason I just can't stand tea, coffee etc. anymore, that includes alcohol. It doesn't stop the chocolate intake though!

 

Well, after a certain amount of trial and error out there today with various ideas of releasing the Choisya I resulted to an archaeological type dig. Luckily I have a couple of stepping stones on the bed so prodded around with a spade and cleared those to stand on. I then chiselled off the worst of the snow with a spade and then dug the rest out with a trowel, it took me an hour as I was frightened of snapping the branches. It's now mostly above snow level but laying on it's side, I'll give it a couple of days and then tie it up to the fence to bring it upright slowly. As it resites itself I'll shorten the tie to bring it fully upright. I can't tell at the moment whether the roots are torn, I'll have to wait for the rest of the snow to thaw before I find out. It's looking better than I expected.

My Yew that's in the same bed took a bit of a battering too so I'll need to check the base of that when I can. I also dug my roses out of their 3ft drift.





Verdun, the snow is still with us, I still have drifts in my front garden and some of the roads close by have 20ft walls of snow!

 

Is this a rare-as-hen's-teeth event for Manx, or do you get snow like that in several Winters during a decade?

 

No it's rare Kristen, the last time we had snow like this was the winter of 1993/4. Although I wasn't living in this village at the time I had a 12ft drift up the side of the cottage I was living in then. Children have reached school age here in the past before they even see a snowflake. Being a small island and surrounded closely by sea it stays warmer than the mainland, snow is a rarity but it doesn't mean we don't get frost and ice.

 

Sheal, it's another world down here.....seems like,another,country.
Hope you save your sundance and the rest
We have a cold wind but temp not too,bad

 

Unless you get -20C, cold cant really damage this, but of course snow weight could damage it, but it would soon recover... I'm not personally a fan of that type of Choisya ternata, I prefer the boring plain green version!

 

Could everyone please stand up NOW and DO the Sun Dance please ... thanks

 

It's the weight of the snow I was worried about Stephen, the crown now seems okay, but I still need to check whether the roots have be torn as it's on it's side.

 

I'm no good at dancing Kristen but we've had non-stop sun here for all but two weeks, I'll try and send some your way. You'll probably get it when it starts raining here next week.

 

I see, it should be ok, fingers crossed..

 

I tied the Choisya up yesterday after pulling it gently upright. The roots are sound and I trod the soil back down to firm the hold. It's looking good apart from one branch which is touch and go but I can cope with that.

However my Yew has a few branches that have taken a knock or two and I'm not sure they will mend, it's a wait and see situation with that.