Dave Tree Pictures, Page 6
Dead or Alive?
April 1, 2003
The Dave Tree's second winter in Vermont was much colder than its first. We had many nights with sub-zero temperatures (as low as 30 below zero Fahrenheit); some days it never rose above zero Fahrenheit all day. This is probably just too cold for a tulip poplar, and I was afraid the Dave Tree wouldn't make it.
May 19, 2003
This is the picture that made AFL's resident horticulturalist, Traci, go "Eeeeeeeew. I think the poor little guy is doomed."
All of the other trees are in various stages of leafing out by now. There's not a single green bud on the Dave tree. It looks horrible.
Traci instructed me to scrape a little piece of bark off the tree just below an end bud and check for green underneath, and to squeeze a couple of the buds to see if they felt full and springy. Well, there wasn't a bit of green under the bark, and the buds were brittle and dry, and crumbled in my fingers.
It looks bleak for the Dave Tree.
May 26, 2003
"The tree is just resting."
Local tree experts insist that the tree is not dead yet. (I question their credentials.)
June 15, 2003
The Dave Tree is toast. It's a stick. A former tree.
Wait a minute, wait a minute! Are those leaves growing down along the ground, way down at the bottom of the tube? What?!
Apparently everything above ground died in the cold, but the root had enough insulation to survive. The Dave Tree is trying to regrow from the root up.
August 8, 2003
The Dave Tree, risen from the ashes.
Truly, a tree with the strength of ten trees.
Helen Read