Brooklyn1 wrote:
....
You'd be surprised... so long as the branches are not fractured they
will spring back once the temperature warms and the sap begins to
flow. Most conifer branches are extremely flexible... with the
weight of snow branches can bend significantly and not break... as the
snow falls off the branches will slowly go back to their original
position. And it's best you do absolutely nothing, you cannot help,
any attempt at propping up will make the situation worse... leave the
tree to do its own thing in it's own time. I live in a snow belt,
temperatures often dive to -20º, I have literally thousands of
assorted conifers on my property... used to be a Christmas tree farm,
but is now a mixed forest with mostly conifers. Every winter I watch
the snow weigh down the branches and then when the snow melts/drops
off, and temperatures rise all the trees regain their original
configuration. I also have lots of multi-trunked birch, those trunks
will bend until their tops touch the ground, and lo and behold they
spring back too. With conifers only the very old large trees will
lose branches because they are no longer supple, but your 12' conifer
is very likely just a baby, its limbs will bend like rubber. With
most conifers snow can only accumulate on the branch ends, not near
the trunk... the young branch ends are extremely supple, that's why
they splayed. It's a good sign they splayed, old rigid branches would
break.

some of our cedar trees will get bent by
heavy wet snows and not all the branches
will recover.


songbird