Mother Nature - The Winds Of Change - Disaster

Jay

OK a little dramatic but the truth. This morning I awoke to the sounds of Mother Natures Winds. We are having a real good windstorm. It is nothing like some of you face from time to time, but, for me, it is pretty bad. I keep my trees in three places in the yard, my better trees the ones in Bonsai Pots are on a three-tier shelf unit outside my back door. Mother Natures Winds were not kind to them last night. A few of the trees on the top and middle shelves were blown off falling onto the lower shelves and the trees there on. I have four broken pots (two of my making) and several trees with broken branches. I have taken all the trees and placed them on the ground for now, I will assess the damage later today; I just cannot bare to see it now. The only thing I had to do, was repot three trees that had been out of there pots for an unknown time, dried by the winds and stripped of some of there soil by the fall. I hope I was able to save them. None are what you would call show pieces, but one was my first Bonsai and another was my first good pot....OH WELL... a good reason to make more pots.

Lessons learned....
1- Do not have multi-level shelves - if a tree falls and there is nothing below you only have one tree damaged.
2- When high winds are expected, place light trees and trees with a high sail (many leaves) on the ground.
3- Never get too attached to a tree, it can for many reasons, die or have its shape altered by nature.

Fortunately, I have had a good response to my pots on the for sale section, it is good to know that others appreciate my work. It is also getting my mind off the DAMAGE in my yard......

just a rant.. Thanks for listening

Jay

__________________
A Bonsai student living with his trees at N 44.37 W 77.49...
Think before you act... then think again... no good comes from rushing

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Jonny D

Jay no exactly how you feel, I hate the wind, and just a warning for any one in the UK and ireland who hasn't seen the weather, 70-90mph gusts are expected tonight and tomorrow particulaly in ireland and the north west so take care of those bonsai before bed.

Jonny.

Bart Thomas(deceased)

Sorry to hear about your disaster, Jay.

This wind is something to keep in mind when planning your benches.

I note that some folks actually wire their trees to the benches. Makes sense..... now.

Ralph

Wow jay, I know that really must hurt. You heard from Thomas J and others here in my area earlier this year about hail. I had one cascade procumbens that was coming along nicely until that hail storm. The trunk has been damaged in several places, and it has recovered since, growing very sparsely. It will always have scars from that storm.
I hope your bonsai fare better!

wmcorcor

Jay...we're a few miles south but getting the same winds today. Last night we evacuated our upper shelves and put everything on the bottom shelf. One fell off the edge of the lower shelf but since it is only about 6-inches up there was no damage. I also lucked out when a large branch off a real tree landed on the empty upper shelf, which in turn protected the trees on the lower shelf.

We also had hail this morning but it was fairly miled. During the summer we had a tornado warning. I had one fairly top heavy trrr's pot wired to the shelf. Unfurtunately the wind left the pot attached to the bench but pulled...make dthat ripped the tree out of the pot (and it was wired in). It landed about 10 feet below in the yard with no damage. No soil either but no damage, and the rain kept it wet enough to survive.

Sorry to hear about your damage...

Lui

Sorry to hear about the damage.
On my trees that may be easily tilted or fallen. I tie them to the bench with tie wraps and it helps.

Adam

Jay,
Sorry to here about mother nature damaging your tree's. It has also been real windy here too. I think its time we take in all factors of the weather when displaying our tree's in our backyards.

Adam

__________________
[Adam]
"Cass Bonsai Gardens"
"Bonsai Knowledge"
"DaGhostCrew"

Jay

Thank you all for your thoughts. I still have not gotten the courage to investigate fully the damage. Yes, I have given a quick once over, want to make sure there is nothing to deal with today, but I think tomorrow will do for a good check out.

I appreciate all the ideas as to ways of preventing this in the future. One of the things we can learn from even the most green of beginners is what can go wrong. If we know it has happened to others we can or should be able to plan to avoid it happening to us. Some of the thoughts mentioned would surely have helped.

The beauty of life is that tomorrow will always be a new day!

Jay

__________________
A Bonsai student living with his trees at N 44.37 W 77.49...
Think before you act... then think again... no good comes from rushing

Treebeard

Hi Jay, I am very sorry to hear about the broken pots, and I really hope there is no lasting damage to your trees.

Regards,

Chris.

__________________
"Do not be hasty, that is my motto"
-JRR Tolkien, The Two Towers.
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