Frozen betula nigra

We had an ice storm yesterday. went out for the mail today and my nice clump of river birch is completely iced over and bent almost to the ground. It's supposed to be in the 40's on Thursday, so I'm just hoping it will thaw and bounce back. the tree is approx. 5 yrs. old. I'm thinking I should just do nothing and hope for the best. Any thoughts, tree guys?

gram

ps I didn't get a pic because it's 16* out today and I just couldn't stand to be out.

If it didn't break off, then you should be OK leaving it alone.

February 2003 was our great ice storm, where many Betula nigra snapped like matchsticks. Yours sounds like it was just young enough to survive.

Here's what weeping willow wondered...

thanks, VV. that makes me feel a little better. it looks a lot like that willow. I couldn't believe it would bend like that.

Looks like a Dali.

Willis

Salix alba Bad Hair Day™

Any hair day is a good hair day for us folliclely challenged. We didn’t get much ice at all. I was waiting to see how good of a tie job I did on the arborvitae.

here's a pic. nothing has broken off yet :-)

While gram~a phone has it all over me in posting/labeling pictures, I've got "best imitation of a daylily", woody plant category 2003...

Embarrassing as it may be, I once hooked up a 100' extension cord and went outside and used a hair dryer to "de-ice" two Jacquemonti Birch that looked an awful lot like what you photographed above. By my estimation, there was simply too much weight on the branches to my little trees and I wanted to do something as branches were already snapping from the weight of the ice. These two trees were planted in up tight by my home. They later were removed because they became infested with the Bronze Birch Borer but they didn't lose any more branches after I "de-iced" them.

Ok, ok, I don't have a zillion trees like Vim & Vigor and some of you other guys, so I gotta take care of the few that I do have. Believe me, equil, I thought about the hair dryer, but I'm asthmatic and I can't stay out in the cold. we had a brief thaw today, but not enough to help. back down in the 20's tomorrow. que sera sera!

Good to know there is somebody else out there who was admittedly thinking about doing what I did. My trees were small at the time. Maybe only about 10' tall. Once the ice started melting, the branches began to raise up to where they had been before the ice storm and I didn't lose any more. Considering how long I was out there, I would like to believe it helped but who knows. It did take considerably longer to de-ice them than what I had expected and in retrospect, I probably wouldn't do it again. I'm glad you aren't out there with asthma waving a hair dryer- ce qui jamais sera soyez.

Our road is lined with small birches, set probably 10 or 12 feet back, and several times after heavy snow or ice they were bent down too low to drive under. After 1 to several days like that, the snow/ice melted and although they were still somewhat bent for a few days, eventually they fully recovered, and now you wouldn't know that they had ever been so heavily bowed. I think that small birches might be somewhat more flexible that some other trees.

Babs, thanks for the encouragement. We had 1 day above freezing and it bounced right back. Good thing too, because we might get some heavy snow today and the temps will be back in the teens tomorrow. It looks pretty much like it's old self. Hooray! Thanks, everybody!

gram