Greetings!
Rosie Lerner, the Master Gardener State Coordinator just sent this through my email.
"Many area homeowners are concerned about the potential damage to landscape plants if the predicted heavy snow and ice comes to pass.
In typical ice storms, the trees hardest hit are weak wooded species such as silver maples, Siberian elms, river birch, and willows. Trees that have been previously topped generally respond by re-growing numerous weak branches that are even more susceptible to breakage. These are among the first of the branches that fall during an ice storm.
Evergreens, both trees and shrubs, are also particularly vulnerable because they still have foliage and so tend to collect more snow and ice loads. Evergreen trees, such as pine and spruce, are not capable of filling in new top growth where the damage has occurred, so the natural shape of the tree will be permanently affected.
There’s not much that can be practically done to protect large trees from such damage. For multi-stemmed shrubs that can be reached safely, you can help prevent or at least minimize damage from heavy snow and ice loads by bundling stems together using burlap or canvas or simply with cord or twine.
Once the storm subsides, carefully remove heavy snow as soon as possible using a soft broom or rubber rake, but don't try to remove ice. Damage to the bark is more likely in trying to remove ice than simply allowing it to melt on its own."
Hope this helps!
