tamarack

Average temp here is 77/55 and that's the warmest average of the year. Over 22 years here, July's coolest mornings have ranged from 37 (2007) to 46 (2006) with no month having fewer than 3 sub-50 minima. This July the bottom will be 51, a quantum leap from the past. To date we've had 10 mornings at 60+ and tomorrow might make it 11. In 2010 it was 15. The month has had only 33° temp range from highest to lowest, and though it will finish with 26 days AN and 5 BN, the end result will be about a modest +2.3, currently 4th warmest of 23 and possibly 3rd (only 0.09° behind 2006 thru yesterday) but well short of 1999 and 2010.

Weak ENSO has generally been good here, with some obvious exceptions.

Can't say I've seen a hemlock over 100', or at least way over. However, there are superstory pines all over northern Maine that are 120'+. Some in southern Maine too - one spot that stands out is in the woods between Sabbathday Lake and the Shaker village on Route 26. Another is the Gardiner forest in South Gardiner -30+ years ago I tallied pines there that had 6 logs of 16' each plus 25-35' of topwood. I think those trees are still there.

Some oddities on that list. Balsam fir's shade tolerance is only a teeny bit less than that of hemlock, the only species on the list to earn an "S" for light. Also, seeing yellow birch listed as the tallest tree - 100' when nothing else is listed at over 80 - is weird. White pine is the state's tallest native tree by a significant amount. Also, the species with the greatest volume in the Maine forest, red spruce, isn't even listed. (Maybe like the St. John Valley Francophones, they lump red with black spruce, though they use the label "red spruce" - epinette rouge - for tamarack!)

If Maine can have 2 tornados during a Thanksgiving snowstorm (2005), anything is possible here. (Except a strong TC)

Black locust is also quite rot resistant; don't know if honey locust is similar. Black locust can also become an invasive in the Northeast, outside its native range, spreading mostly by root sprouts. And despite its spreading roots, a lot blew down when Bob came thru, whether due to weak roots or crowns atop a long lever arm I can't say. (Crummy color in fall, too.)

I think "Hardy to -20" may be conservative. The ones on the U. Maine campus in Orono were doing fine last time I looked and once the Stillwater River freezes it gets cold there.

It's what I would've said had I not gone to bed before midnight. White ash will do well in well- and moderately well drained soils and okay in somewhat poorly drained. They like fertility but one shouldn't fertilize a fall transplant until the next spring, as the fall fert. may cause a growth spurt that gets wrecked by frost. Ash seeds (from all species native to Maine at least) look a bit like tiny airplane propellers, and can get carried a long way by the wind. The Dec. 1992 storm that buried ORH produced nothing but wind at our (then) Gardiner home, but there had been a good white ash seed crop and next spring we had about 10 germinants per square foot, sometimes more, and also right in front of our house despite all the ash being out back.

38 44 54 (X2 or 3 - does Hazel count?) 60? (Did Donna make landfall in New England, or offer Cat 1 winds in the region?) long jump 85 91 That's 6-8 from 1900 forward (assuming none 1900-37) - looks more like a 20-year periodicity unless I'm missing something. Of course, 20 yr period isn't 20/40/60/80 due to the stochastic nature of wx.

Longest in my adult life was 4 days in 1998, plus 4-5 hours next day - probably intentional shutoffs to protect lineworkers nearby. Had anything broken in the 400' between Brunswick Avenue and our place, it would've been more like 14 days than 4. The 1953 ice storm in NNJ took out our power for 6 days, but we didn't worry about losing internet or charging our cellphones back then. At my age (almost 7) it was a great adventure. Have yet to lose power due to a TC, only ice storms, wet snow and traffic accidents.

Our 54-55 double play - 5 TCs for New England.

It was about 10:15 by the time my eyes got accustomed to the dark, about the same sun-time here as 10:30 there. Some afterglow, augmented by Farmington 6 miles away, on the western horizon even at that time. Nice that the comet's tail points at the lowest star in the Big Dipper's current orientation.

Not all that much blew down from those storms. I'd guess than 98% of damage was from the epic flooding. BDL had 21.3" RA that August, 4" from Connie and over 14" from Diane less than a week later. Farther NW, Norfolk had 9" from Connie and nearly 13" from Diane.

Very clear last evening, best summertime view of the Milky Way in a long time. Walked well up into the nearby field and was able to see the comet, fairly dim (no magnification) but quite obvious and moreso than Halley's comet 34 years ago. (I've read that '86 was Halley's poorest display in centuries.)

And whether the leaflets are on short stalks or are right on the petiole. Also need to rule out boxelder (aka ash-leaved maple) which has compound leaves like ash though some leaflets are notched. Sounds like you've got quite the puckerbrush thicket there. Brown ash (NNE term for what's black ash elsewhere) also has markedly different bark, brownish (duh) compared to the grays of white/green ash and boxelder, and also a bit crumbly when rubbed.

The various willow species are quite confusing to ID at the species level. The dendrology (tree ID) class I had at U. Maine only required Salix, the genus name, while mandating species for everything else. Of course, pussywillow is an easy ID in April but by now it looks about the same as several other willow species. Also, any willow in Maine over 12" diameter (almost could say 6") is black willow, but when it's young an ID is problematic. White and green ash will tolerate some wetness while brown ash is often found in wetlands, in part because it's slower growing than white/green on good sites but competes well in the swamp. There's not a lot of native green ash in Maine but it's probably the mot widely planted ash and it will naturalize. If your tree is white ash, there is evidently some chance it will tolerate EAB. An article in "Maine Woodlands" (monthly publication from Maine Woodlot Owners, formerly Small Woodland Owners Association of Maine) stated that green and brown ash suffered near extirpation from EAB but up to a third of white ash survived. With all the ash (mostly white, some brown) on our woodlot, I hope the tolerance comment is valid. My oak trees are starting to drop acorns.......is that normal for mid-July? Product of the drought? Most acorns drop in September. Are yours full size?

With those conditions pawpaw stands alone. Osage orange smells citrusy but is inedible.

Looks a bit larger than Osage orange, though it's close. And of course if one counts cones as "fruit" (they're the seed-bearers, just like fruit) several western pines produce far larger. Sugar, Jeffrey, digger pines have cones that dwarf pawpaw and Osage orange.

Black gum does fine in both wetlands and better drainage. Very nice fall color and unique right-angle twigs/branches. Farthest north I've seen it is Gardiner but supposedly it can be found in the Kennebec Valley up to WVL. That Jefferson tree is proof that in the right place one can get away with planting something far north of its natural range. There's a 30"+ by 75' tulip poplar in Farmington at Perham and High Streets. It's on a gentle slope and right in town.

Two surprises in that post, though I don't doubt either. First, that sweetgum is native at 42-43 north. There was none at all in the woods around our NNJ home - first ones I ever saw were planted where my in-laws retired in CNJ, though its absence 50 miles to the north may be cultural history more than forest ecology. Sweetgum has bright red fall colors, though IMO not as vibrant as red maple. (No shame in trailing #1.) It also has abundant and slightly prickly 1" diameter seed balls reminiscent of sycamore, so some serious yardwork, perhaps. 2nd surprise is baldcypress rated at Zone 4, though it's native to southern Illinois which probably gets to -20 now and again. Since Chris is probably Zone 5B, it might be a good if unusual choice. I don't think it's native in the East north of coastal Virginia.

Quaking aspen doesn't do well in swampy areas, though it would probably persist there. Balsam poplar, its cousin, tolerates wet feet better but I'm not sure it would be available. Maybe some native red maple? Then with the ones in front you would have fall colors from late August in the swamp to near the end of October toward the street. I'd be wary of baldcypress unless one can find a cultivar that's proven hardy this far north of its native range. Either northern white cedar (sometimes sold as arborvitae) or the less common Atlantic white cedar are wetland approved. To respond to S&P's query on pruning tomatoes, I've always pruned to a single stem unless growing paste tomatoes, which don't get pruned or staked. In my location, "soon" comes before "many", as first frost date averages Sept. 19. About 3 weeks from today I'll pinch off the top to prevent our cherry tomatoes (only kind I'm growing currently) from setting any more fruit, so that those already set have a better chance of ripening in time.

I don't know if nurseries handle the native flowering dogwood - it often suffers from an anthracnose disease that is frequently fatal, so it may be quarantined. IMO it's even a nicer tree than the Kousa - blossoms at least as pretty and spectacular burgundy/purple fall color punctuated by bright red clusters of "berries" plus a unique "blocky" bark. (I may be biased as I grew up living on aptly-named Dogwood Trail in NNJ.) If red twig dogwood is the same species as the common red-osier dogwood, plant it only in places where you can easily control its spread, which is often done by runners extending through the duff (or mulch).

NNE did a little better, at least in Maine. Oddly, 3 of those 6 NYC ratters, 52, 54 and 55, had big dumps on Feb. 17-18. The 1952 event has been pushed back to #3 at PWM but it was a far more powerful storm in Maine than PWM's bigger snows of Jan 79 and Feb 13. When I read "Their Finest Hours" (have not seen the movie) I was reminded that the Maine Turnpike had about 1,000 stranded vehicles at the height of the '52 blizzard. Not much snow at CHH but it was plenty exciting.

To find another winter like 05-06 with no 6"+ storms I had to go back to 67-68 in NNJ. To find a third I'm probably back in the early 50s before I began to even measure the stuff. (Looking at the stats, winters 1949-50 thru 54-55 were a sixpack of ratters in NYC and anyplace in the general region.)

Those choices would be 2003-04 and 2007-08 up here. Dec 03 brought storms of 24" and 13" by the 15th and the rest of the winter only added another 35". Given the comparative regularity of snowfall thru the 4 snowy months, having more than half the season's production coming that soon is anomalous for sure. Then 2007-08's biggest event was 12.5" and only one other storm cracked 10, barely. But for nearly all 4 "winter" months (here) we saw 2 [or more] storms per week and finished with 142.3" and over 3800 SDDs.