A line of severe thunderstorms threatened us yesterday. Only one cell passed over Stone Wall Garden. Its wind blew wildly from the southeast and the rain was torrential. Our electric power winked out only briefly and the house held against the powerful onslaught. Our plants displayed mixed responses to the storm.
The sunflowers are now heavy with seed. They took a beating from the storm. The one pictured above had its stem snap well above ground level. Carrying off the broken plant was a bit of a task. I never expected a few flowers to weigh so much.
Our Autumn Joy sedums always flop when in full bloom. Each year I plan to make wire cages before growth starts. If the plant grew up and out of the cage, then the branches would have some support. Good intentions were of no help so our plants are open in the center. Perhaps next year will be different.
Several small fallen branches littered the driveway under the huge cherry tree. One of them displayed fungal growth that we have never seen before. The purple circles are an uncommon color. We have absolutely no idea of the name of this unusual growth. The same can be said of the bright light green sheets nearby. This growth occurred high up in the tree. Had the storm not broken the branches, we would never have seen these beauties.
Our apple trees were planted eleven years ago. We do not know how to properly prune fruit trees and we use no pesticides. There have never been more than a few pathetic ripe apples here. This year the frost was kind to the apple trees and the rainfall was abundant. All four trees are carrying a heavy load of apples now. We expected that the storm would break branches and shake most of the fruit to the ground. The direction of the storm and the shadow of the high meadow combined to create a quiet place where these trees grow. All of the apples and all of the branches are still in place.
We lost a few flowers to the storm but nothing terrible came to us from it. New to us fungal growth on dead tree branches was the result of the storm here. Our luck continues to hold.
1 comment:
Oh good--not too much damage, then. Whew! That purple fungus is strange--I wonder what it is! Your Apple trees look great! We used to have Apples at our old house, and I miss them.
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