Comments on: Snow Load on Plants https://www.scottarboretum.org/snow-load/ Wed, 27 Aug 2025 21:45:59 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.5 By: PlantingOaks https://www.scottarboretum.org/snow-load/#comment-665 Thu, 11 Feb 2010 20:04:44 +0000 http://blogs.scottarboretum.org/gardenseeds/?p=1900#comment-665 We have some very large old yews at our house. While they definitely have the ‘multiple leader’ problem, they are apparently flexible enough that branches as thick as my arm bend under the snow load until they touch the ground but do not break. They definitely look a mess under heavy snow, but always spring back. I guess that’s why they were used for making bows?

]]> By: Andrew Bunting https://www.scottarboretum.org/snow-load/#comment-664 Thu, 11 Feb 2010 18:45:48 +0000 http://blogs.scottarboretum.org/gardenseeds/?p=1900#comment-664 After this past snow (now almost 50 inches in a week) we have observed how plants really fair in heavy snows. As mentioned in the blog pines, Pinus are very vulnerable. We have especially seen extensive damage to Pinus bungean, lacebark pine. Also, several of the true cedars, Cedrus suffered considerable damage when their branches became weighted down with too much snow and simply snapped. The breaking branches then fell on lower branches also breaking them. Several broad-leaved trees such as American holly, Ilex opaca and Southern magnolia, Magnolia grandiflora have had large branches break out of them. There has been so much snow that many shrubs have splayed open. If you feel your plants, especially shrubs, are likely to break under the weight of the snow then you can gently shake the shrub branches to alleviate the snow load.

Andrew Bunting, Curator

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