Freeze Dried Bamboo

The low light of a wet dreary day really makes the amber brown of the freeze dried bamboo stand out nicely. If that was how it was supposed to look it would be beautiful. It is supposed to be an evergreen and every winter until this one it has remained green. That is not green.

I did some reading on the interwebs about winter burn on bamboo. Only spring will tell how severe the damage is. It could just be leaf burn and they will leaf back out. There could be minor to significant damage of the culms. They may need cleaning of the dead culms or at worst cut to the ground and started over.

I'm hoping they leaf back out.

All the cold hardy camellias are in a similar state of sad looking brown. All I can do is wait and see if they are just leaf burned, slightly damaged or dead. Death will signal the end of the cold hardy camellia experiment.

I want my evergreens to be reliably evergreen or ever variegated as the case may be when we have an actual zone 6 winter for which I am listed and is prone to happen now and again. Winter burn like this is a special set of conditions and even reliably hardy plants can suffer damage though. I've seen lots of cooked cherry laurels and singed hollies in my travels this year.

It was that -8 episode that did the damage. Extreme low temperatures with frozen ground, strong winds and no snow cover leads to a lack of water uptake and dessication. It's not pretty.

This wet dreary day is about to be followed by another one to three inches of snow. My plan was to do the first sowing of the roadside vegetable garden on a sunny 55 degree day tomorrow. That may have to wait until the afternoon, if all the snow melts by then, or later in the week altogether.

More snow, then a week of spring. Then no doubt more snow at some point before it's all over. There is progress. I noticed the Hepatica, Anemone acutiloba has started to bloom down in the forest. April is usually when the forest floor comes to life and blooms in profusion.

But first we will have more snow and it has already started.