...: Marsh Chatter
Lollipop No More
During the overnight of Friday July 19th, 2013... we experienced a strong storm that blew a 40-45 foot limb (about 15" diameter) out of a Maple tree. The limb crashed down on two large decorative bushes - a 6 ft tall Korean Spice and a 6 ft tall (8-10 ft wide) Shoshoni Viburnum. Each bush was essentially invisible in the carnage.
Carnage
Where it came from...
Details
What is a Lollipop Maple - it's just a Maple tree which has a nice shape - like a big lollipop you would find at a State Fair. It's not a special Maple - in fact this one is probably one of those Norway Maples which sprout just about any/everywhere. This one provided nice shade environment where we placed a hammock and a nice Hosta garden with other shade loving plants.
The Korean Spice has a wonderful 'vanilla' scent in spring. That scent carries through an area about 100 ft around the bush. The Shoshani was also a beautiful bloomer - mostly due to its layered shape - making it look like it had freshly fallen snow on it.
Aftermath
The Korean Spice might be recoverable. It appears to be flexing back into shape and only broke 3 stems. The Shoshani is pretty much 'toast'. Here they are 2 days later.
Korean Spice Viburnum
The Korean Spice was mostly 'split' and moved out of the way with only 3 small stalks broken. It may take a couple of years to fill that space in - but that is shorter than the 10 yrs it took to get to this size... so we might let it go with a bit of trim/shaping.
Shoshoni Viburnum
The Shoshoni is pretty much missing 1/2 of the bush in width and about 3 ft of its height. If you were sitting on that bench - your arm would be brushing the Shoshoni. Not anymore!
One thing to note in both of those pictures above? The amount of sun which is on that area now! It went from dappled sun to full sun from about 2pm onward. This will change the characteristics of that area, drastically.
I took the following picture in 2010. It offers a nice view of the area - quite a contrast of the above carnage.
What it "did" look like (2010)
Final Results?
No expensive structure was damage. No people were injured. All in all - we came out of the storm pretty well, considering others in Michigan with this storm, and the tornadoes of the Spring time in Midwest.
We will probably take the Maple Tree down. As someone said to me, it now looks like it has a 'bite' in the lollipop. The tree has been encroaching on several taller white pines and with the damage in the tree and what appears to be other weaknesses - it only makes sense to remove it and start fresh.
There is at least one other tree down - but it is in the forest area of the Marsh, so that is part of "nature" and will be left to support creatures great & small.
Opportunity - courtesy of Mother Nature.
UPDATE: August 2020 - the Derecho storm that blasted through the Midwest - has completed what this storm started (now 7ish years later). All that's left is the final chainsawing and stacking of the wood.