But everywhere the remnants of a brutal, late winter blizzard that left my yard buried for weeks in 3 feet of snow are still in evidence.
Most of the bushes and trees have survived intact and are blooming ferociously.
And my early spring carpet of blue scilla have burst from the ground and are putting on a show.
It should be bursting with pink flowers. instead, it's barren of blooms. The bark has been stripped from its branches, starting at about a foot off the ground.
Time will tell whether it will "spring" back next year but I'm not optimistic.
Here's another Japanese quince which only seems to be half dead.
Consensus here is that the culprits are rabbits. The bane of my garden.
For weeks after a formidable blizzard, the ground was blanketed in 3' of snow, covering up the grass and weeds that sustain the rabbits. The snow weighed down the bushs' branches and the rabbits climbed aboard and helped themselves to their bark, stripping the branches clean.
And so no flowers formed. No leaves are budding. I'm not optimistic that the bushes will come back. Time will tell.
What do you think? Is there any hope that my Japanese quinces will come back?
Are you having a gorgeous spring, and does your neighborhood bear winter's scars?
Sadly, I'm not too optimistic about your Japanese quinces, but it's good that most of your plants survived our brutal winter. Here, everything seems to be blooming as it should . . . .
ReplyDeleteI have some rabbit damage on my blueberry bushes. My forysthia is blooming nicely and the antique dogwood is getting ready, as is the lilac and the big rhododendrons.. Sorry about your quince!
ReplyDeleteWe have snow this morning. I'm ready for spring but it's never reliably here in the High Peaks until later in the month. I do have some daffodils blooming but usually my lilacs are putting on their show at the beginning of June.
ReplyDeleteI've never had anything to do with Japanese quince, as it won't survive here, but I believe it's one of those shrubs that you can cut to the ground (if necessary) and it will come back. It blooms on "old wood" so you just wouldn't have any blooms this year and it would be very small for a while. The branches that are completely girdled are dead and should be cut off, either way. Good luck!
(Selden)
The daffodils are past, the lilac bush is dead and must be removed. Our Iris patches are all budding up, so that is good news. We have one spot in the front where nothing seems to thrive and it is very frustrating. I'm going to do a deep dive into native plants and see if we can find a plant that grows there.
ReplyDeleteI'm so sorry about your Japanese quince, Hallie. I have absolutely no expertise in gardening, so I won't hazard an opinion. For me, "gardening" means buying four well-started hanging baskets to put in my four-armed shepherd's hook once we are safely past Mother's Day. Though I will admit that I have been toying with putting out a tiny herb garden in a container... But even that feels risky for my gardening abilities.
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