Did You Know?

New England Adage

May 01, 2020

There are those old New England adages that people question; do they just sound cute or are they true? At this time of year the one that comes to mind is: Ash before oak, fire and smoke, oak before ash, lightning and flash. Simply, if the ash trees break bud before the oak trees there will be drought-like conditions throughout the summer. If the oak leafs out first it will be a wet summer. The ash trees in our area are now suffering and under stress due to a little non-native insect called Emerald ash borer. These stressed trees have a tendency to leaf out late. So it goes, you can no longer predict if you should buy a new rain coat or a bigger watering can!