The Case of the Color of Cold
a Poem by Digger Spade
His said his cedars may be dead
Their winter color
brownish red
He planted them in early Spring
And watered it through summer’s fling
The soil around was a
dense loam
The trees seemed happy in the gloam
Not too dense so ample light
This year added a good height
So had this everlasting cold
Caused these young tree to up and fold
Perhaps it had, this Spring will tell
If no new growth, Ah well!
But then this may not be its fate
For young red cedar cold weather hate.
Each winter when they are still youngish
The cold will turn their needles brownish
But only on the upper side.
If that’s the case, when Spring arrives
The trees will show that it’s alive
By turning green and growing well
If that doesn’t happen , Ah well
It means the long cold winter weather
Froze water transport altogether
We told him he should inspect
The fronds and stem to there detect
Splits in the stem and fronds all brown
Signs that would show the tree is gorn.
If those aren’t there the
tree should thrive
When Spring is sprung and it’s alive
A spurt of growth will add new height
As it shoots up to find more light
Digger Footnote: The early November cold
snaps of 2015 and 2016 caught quite a lot of plants stil enjoying mild weather
with sap abundant, and young cedar died when the sap froze and the bark and cambium layers at ground level split
away from the trunk. The winter of 2016
was as cold and lasted longer but didn’t happen until much later in the
year. We will know soon whether that
weather was a killer.
