I recently moved from BC to Alberta, so I am not familiar with heavy snow related matters. I planned 3 Brandon cedars and 4 globe cedars in the summer. A freak wet snow storm in October placed sufficient weight on the cedars that most of them bent over to the ground or splitted down the middle. Now all of the snow has been melted and the cedars looked horrible. How should I fix them? How can I avoid similar problems.
Tie the ones that look like they can be restored back together with something that will not readily cut into the bark. Local vendors may have ideas for suitable products. Much future damage might be eliminated by planting seedlings or selections with the normal growth habit of the species. The two cultivars you chose both have aberrant growth habits that probably make them much more prone to damage.
for what its worth. next time get a broom and knock the snow off the same day or soon after, then, no problemo. Also check your pruning shape and "V" is bad for collecting snow a "A" shape (nothing to do with the sound of the letters , I am talking about the shape) is less likely to have buildup
Hi TYW tie up the split shrubs starting 3' below ending 3' above the splits The trick with these in this climate is not only the broom beating but most important the proper pruning of these. they must be taught from the getgo that they need to be tight not like the way many are pruned on the coast/ ceneral B.C. Also for the first 2 years you have to take extra care as the plant probably came from the south and was not properly hardened off. We had the same freak wet storm in P.G. and three was little to dammage best regards Doug
Thanks everyone, I will tie them up. I noticed a few houses in the neighbourhood uses garbage bags to cover the tips; kind of make sense to prevent splitting.
This is kind of after the fact but I am a new reader. I have several HUGE arbortvitae and as you know, they consist of basically 4 upright branches that naturally bunch together, however, in heavy snow or ice (we get ice storms mostly) they have a tendancy to bend over and split 4 ways. We spiral tied ours. Put sort of a loop over the narrowest top section and worked in in so it doesn't show and then walked round and round going lower and lower toward the base. We used a heavy sisal rope which eventually biodegrades and has to be done again but it is a natural brown and doesn't show too much, we also worked this in toward the center under the foliage so it isn't obvious. This also seems to make our many yard birds happy as they can hide inside without having to worry about their shelter falling apart. We are the only people in the neighborhood now who's arborvitae don't look horrible or have 1/4 of it missing or broken off.
