We here in the Northeast have had to put up with a bit much lately. Three “nor’easters” in 3 weeks.
For those of you unfamiliar with the concept of a “nor-easter,” it is a storm that most often occurs in the winter with winds that primarily blow from the north east (hence its name). It can bring rain or snow or a combination of both. It can bring blizzard conditions. It is most often known for its devastating winds, so folks along the coast often call them “winter hurricanes.” And, if they occur at times of high tides, they can often lead to very destructive coastal flooding as well.
Each one of our nor’easters has been personally different for me and I’ve fared very, very well compared to most of New England and the mid-Atlantic. But I’ll give you a little taste of the personal destruction we’ve had at our house from nor’easter #2, the one I’ve dubbed “arbor-geddon.”
The first problem was the attack upon my car. Yes, there is a car underneath all this tangled foliage. The top of a Japanese maple came down on top of my Subaru. Notice my wheel in the lower left corner of the photo.
Luckily the car emerged with just a small scratch. The maple is not so lucky. Here’s what that looks like.
Here’s the branch that was on the car, as well as a look at the now mangled tree. I planted this as a sapling 23 years ago. I will try pruning to see what it looks like “after.” Despite its attack on my car, I am fond of it. And the birds love to nest there.
And of course there are the Eastern white pines. They shed some large limbs in every heavy snow or ice storm. Honestly, it’s a miracle we have any branches left. Notice the three distinct places where they fell. Not sure what that’s about.
What’s a little more discouraging is what’s happened to this juniper. It was a big overgrown thing but I let it go because it produced masses of berries for the birds, particularly over-wintering robins or those that came back very early in the spring. It’s been significantly damaged. I am not sure if we can prune it into shape or if it has to come out. We’ll see a little later this spring.
And we lost this large branch off our Japanese black pine. This is mostly cosmetic damage–sad but not terrible.
On Friday I will show some damage that occurred elsewhere–on the grounds of a nearby museum–and the reasons for it.
Gardendaze 
Is that juniper an Eastern redcedar? We lack those here. I know some people really dislike them, but to me, it is so interesting because I had never worked with one before.
Tony,
Yes, this variety is one we would call an eastern red cedar. I wonder if people who hate them do it because they are common where they’re from? Here, we all hate ( if we’re going to use that word for a tree–& I know I did and not you) our eastern white pines. But both are perfectly good native plants.
The problem with the pines, as you see from my post, is that they drop branches–or worse yet, whole trees come crashing down. But they too support an awful lot of wildlife. Right now we have a pair of great horned owls out there–& have all winter.
Karla