Last spring I made three posts showing how I'd successfully raised an over 20' tree downed by Hurricane Ike. I showed the tree in bloom last spring, but said I wouldn't know for certain it had survived until it made it through the summer into the next spring.
The Rusty Blackhaw is in bloom now and looks great. All the effort was worth it! I post so that you can know that it IS possible to save an ornamental tree that isn't too large (as in a 50-year old Live Oak) IF: no major roots are broken (I subsequently found one had been broken); it's not out of the ground (the roots were raised up, but not out of the ground); you immediately start treating the tree with SuperThrive; cover to protect the vulnerable roots; and get it back up within 36 or so hours. As I originally posted, I treated the tree multiple times per day the first couple of days with SuperThrive and kept its roots moist and covered with sheets/tarps. I treated it with mycorrhizal fungi as we began to raise it up (two men helped me). We set 4x4's in concrete and used plastic tree tape to hold it until later, when a tree man cabled it with steel cable to one of the posts. I babied the tree all fall, encouraging it to survive. It didn't even drop any leaves from the initial shock. I stained the post to match the fence and the cable is hidden by surrounding FireSpikes (before this hard winter). I also cut some key branches on the side on which the tree had fallen to reduce the weight on that side.
The tree looks great and I know the birds that feast on its berries are glad it survived. The next time a great wind, be it hurricane or whatever, downs a favorite ornamental tree of a reasonable size and you are willing to expend the labor and money to save it, do so. Too many people give up on trees that have a chance to survive. You won't always be successful, but it may be worth the time and effort to make the attempt.
Leslie
Downed Tree Survived
Great save.
Good Job Leslie!!!
Hooray! Do you have a pic of it in bloom?