Surviving the Storm and Beyond

This has been a crazy winter in the Willamette Valley with two snow storms and an ice storm that nearly shut down the city. But our tree seems to have survived without a scratch.

There were trees and branches down all over town after the ice storm last weekend, but no damage at The Experiment.  

I was afraid we might lose a lot of needles from the end of the branches after they were frozen solid, but no problem. Hopefully we have survived the worst that winter has to offer and Spring will be here soon. Mother Nature can work her magic, the candles will start to grow, and before you know it we will be ready for another trim! 

 

By the way, I have added another tree to The Experiment, a Monkey Puzzle Tree, (Araucaria araucana) 

  It's the national tree of Chile. A hardy evergreen, native to central and southern Chile and western Argentina. In the mountains they can grown 100 feet high and live up to 1000 years!  

The trees feature very sharp triangle shaped leaves. After 30 of 40 years they produce edible seeds, so that is something to look forward to! Right now I have the tree in a pot, but eventually I'm going to have to figure out a better plan. Stop by The Experiment and see how both our trees are doing! 

 

All this work with The Experiment has gotten me thinking a lot about trees.

I was wondering if there is a way to tell the age of a tree without having to cut it down and count the rings. I know there are ways to drill into the tree and take a core sample, but how about a ball park figure of the age by just measuring it at the base? I thought it would be a great project for my history class to find a tree in their neighborhood, figure out how old it is, and then research he history of what that tree has lived through. Anybody have any suggestions?

Snow and Ice Create Havoc at The Experiment

Two days of snow and then freezing rain are causing some concerns at The Experiment.

Almost a foot of snow on Friday followed by freezing rain Saturday morning covered the tree is snow and ice.

 Branches were sagging and needles were frozen solid. It was actually quite pretty, but I was afraid the weight of the ice might break a branch, so I tried to knock some of the ice off. All that did was knock off the needles, so I guess I'll just have to wait and hope things warm up a bit, and let Mother Nature save the day! 

This is a big year for The Experiment. This summer will be our third anniversary, and time for some major decisions about trimming branches. Lets hope we get through this storm without any of those decisions being made for us. 

 

Winter Hours: Because of the inclement weather, we have had to reduce visiting hours at The Experiment. Through the rest of winter we are open 3-5 Tuesday-Friday and noon to 4 on weekends. Be sure to call ahead to schedule your visit because we are sometimes closed for private parties and weddings.