Waterfall Japanese Maple - Crushed by Tree Limb - September 2024

Earlier this Summer, we had a storm that dropped a couple of good-sized limbs from a few of our trees.  A big one from one of our Oaks.  And a few medium-sized limbs from one of the Black Walnut trees.   On that Black Walnut limb were ten-to-twelve green-covered walnuts that weighed the limb down - and likely caused it to snap due to the weight.  With a semi-wooded lot with some mature trees, that happens from time-to-time.   Normally...the limbs drop the ground harmlessly.

But not this time.  

This time, it came down DIRECTLY on top of our small Waterfall Japanese Maple tree *right* at one of the tree's joints.  That limb SNAPPED off one of the major limbs on the Japanese Maple.  See below for a few photos showing the damage on the Waterfall Japanese Maple tree:

And, here, below, is the limb in question.  I fished it out of the bed and threw it on the lawn.  

This was back in June.  Fast-forward three months to now.  How is the tree doing?  

Below is a photo showing the Waterfall Japanese Maple.  Is it thriving?  No.  Not really.  But, has it *somewhat* recovered and filled with foliage?  Yep.  I'll take that as a win:

Of all the Japanese Maples I've planted, I've lost a bunch of them.  But this one - which was heavily damaged - seems to have hung-on (so far).   It has a strong will to live, it seems.