After my first mail-order Shagbark Hickory (2013 from TyTy) never leafed out, I was a little doubtful about my second attempt (April 2014 from Nearly Native Nursery).
However, the second Shagbark Hickory has leafed out nicely each spring so far. The small black winter-buds swell to an enormous size and break to produce beautiful fragile new growth each spring. The picture below is from the first spring (2014). The new growth is short-lived and after a couple of weeks the leaves stop growing but remain papery thin and fragile for several weeks. First the spring winds come and shred these fragile leaves, then the brutal Texas summer heat bakes them until they are barely green anymore.
However, the tree has bounced back every spring so far, and gets a little bigger each time. On March 11th 2017, the buds were about to break.
Almost there on March 14th.
The next few images show the buds as they burst open.... These pictures were taken on March 18th 2017.
On March 26th 2017, the Shagbark Hickory was fully leafed out, but the leaves were still fragile and drooping - ready to be shredded by the next strong wind....
On April 22nd 2018, the Shagbark Hickory was looking very healthy. The fragile leaves came out in March and the usual strong spring winds whipped them around for weeks on end, but somehow this time they did not shred.
In the summer of 2019 the heat was so brutal that the leaves became entirely black then fell off.
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Shagbark Hickory (early July 2020)
Shagbark Hickory (end of June 2019)
Shagbark Hickory (July 2018)
Shagbark Hickory (July 2017)
Shagbark Hickory (July 2016)
Shagbark Hickory (2014)
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