graham wrote:
"Judith in France" wrote in message
...
I arrived home in France today to see my beloved Silver Birch, I have
about a dozen but 2 were very damaged with the weight of snow on their
branches. They are drooping, like a willow, will they recover or will
I need to prune, severely in Spring?

If you do prune do NOT do it in spring but early summer when the sap has
stopped running! Same for maples.
Graham
(in W. Canada where the temperature has been dropping to -30C at night over
the last 10 days or so)



"Maples" is too large a group to treat with a single piece of advice,
but generally speaking the best time to prune sugar, silver, red and
Japanese (meaning saccharum, saccharinum, rubrum and palmatum) is early
to late fall, after leaf drop. Of course most maples don't need much
pruning.

We certainly agree that, like birches, pruning in late winter or spring
when the sap is running is the worst thing to do.

Our climate is not the same. I sympathize with -30, but I planted 4
trees yesterday (A. rufinerve 'Sunshine', A. tartaricum ssp ginalla
'Flame', A. pseudoplatanus 'Leat's cottage' and Oxydendrum arboreum).
Meant to get cold tomorrow, though, and we'll probably have a frost at
least here in Normandy.

Best holiday wishes to all urglers!

-E