Nina writes:

With a stalk of celery, high turgor will lead to a "snap", whereas
wilted celery will bend. True. But the snappiness of a woody branch
depends on the *wood*, which is dead and not responding to any change
in water content of the soil. If you think about the anatomy of a
woody tree branch, the only tissue that is going to react to changes
in water content is the inner bark. I might worry about snapping
turgid little twigs, but I'm not going to worry *at all* about larger
branches.

Nina:

The logic works for me, but experience tells me otherwise. I have bent some extremely old branches with tight growth rings. The trees that were allowed to dry out before the stylings were significantly easier to bend. I attribute this to the amazing strength of the water swollen inner bark.

Is it my imagination? );-)

Regardless,

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