Front Yard Trees Buds (And No Buds) - Winter 2019

A couple of days ago, I posted a couple of photos of our Flowering Japanese Kwanzan Cherry Tree that had suffered a little bit of winter damage here on the blog.  Today, I'm documenting a few of our front yard trees and their buds (or lack thereof).  I wanted to capture a few of the trees and how their buds were coming along in the heart of Winter.  If you're looking for a layout of our front yard trees that is a companion of this post, you can view it here on this 'tree dreaming' post from a week ago.

First up, is our small Bald Cypress.  Last I covered it here on the blog was back at the end of August of this Summer (2019) when it was showing nicely with green, lacy needles.  Today, you can see it (below) clinging to a lot of brown/orange needles on the trees small frame.  

Here (below) is a closer look at one of the branches that have some thorn-like (but not thorns!) raised bark, but not what I'd consider normal 'buds'.  However, look closely at the tip of the branch and you'll see something formed there.  Do Bald Cypress 'bud' at their tips?

Next up is our Saucer Magnolia Tree that you can see below.  You'll note in the photo that the tree has quite a few buds that have set on the tips of the tree. 

I've posted about this tree in various seasons the past few years with the latest being in September of 2019 when the buds that you see here were just starting to set on the tree full of big, beautiful leaves.  As I've mentioned before, this tree set flower buds in the Fall of 2018 and held them during the Winter of 2019, but they never emerged in Spring of 2019.  Not one flower on this tree.  

Here (below) is a closer look at some of the buds on this tree.  I have my fingers crossed that we get a continued mild Winter (did I just *jinx* myself here??) and that we see a nice flower show come Easter-time.

And, finally (below) is a look at the Chanticleer Pear (flowering) tree that is located just north of our driveway, just east of our garage.  This tree - and its predecessor - has been trouble since it was planted.  For some reason or the other, I haven't included this tree in my annual tree height inventory post (2019 version here).  Here's the full (I think) history of the front yard Chanticleer Pear Flowering Tree on the blog:

• February 2018: The first time I seem to have posted photos - a Winter Check-in
• June 2018:  We had the dead tree replaced with a same-size Chanticleer Pear
• October 2018:  The first few months were tough on the replacement tree, but some growth emerged in October of 2018. 
• November 2018:  Out-of-season flowers blooming on the tree in Fall of 2018.
• July 2019:  The (replacement) tree leafed out during the Summer of 2019.
• January 2020:  Today - showing some buds that have set this past Fall/Winter (below).

I have mixed emotions on this tree.  I want it to survive, but I'm afraid that it has suffered some serious damage and won't ever really be happy in this spot.  I blame the clay "bathtub effect" and the poor drainage that such a setup creates.  Having stopped watering this tree totally when the new tree got put in, this one seems to have survived, but there are plenty of dead spots on it.  Mixed bag all-in-all.   As I mentioned in my post two days ago on the Japanese Cherry Tree, when I switch to 'caliper' measuring for these small trees, I'll be able to get a sense if this tree is, indeed, growing at all.