Today, I hope I’m not too late to give some advice on protecting your trees for winter. When we have a complete snow cover like we just experienced last week, the sweet bark of young apple and flowering crab trees is a treat for rabbits. They will eat the bark from the snow line to as high as they can reach … good for the rabbit, not so good for the tree. Also, the smooth bark of young maple trees is very susceptible to damage from "sun scald." When we have the combination of cold temperatures, a snow cover, and bright sun, the sun reflects up off the snow and thaws the frozen bark on the southwest side of the stem. As the sun goes down or it clouds up, the bark quickly refreezes, and that strip of bark often is killed or severely damaged. You won’t notice until spring when the tree grows, and as the trunk expands with new growth, that strip of dead bark can’t expand, so it splits open, and then you know the damage has been done. Both of these potential problems can be prevented by wrapping the stem. We carry a white spiral plastic protector that goes on very easily and can be reused indefinitely, or you can wrap with a tree wrap paper. To prevent the sunscald, the tree should be wrapped from the base up to where the tree starts branching, and this should be done yearly until the bark of the tree is old enough to "furrow." To prevent rabbit damage, I don’t know how high you have to wrap … it depends on how deep the snow gets. Trying to convince the rabbit to go elsewhere for supper isn’t effective, so you just have to be ready to keep protecting that tree 18" above the snow line. When you consider the total circumference as 100 percent of the feeding capacity for the tree, damaging or losing the bark on one side of the trunk could easily amount to 1/3 or 1/2 reduction in growth capacity. Trees grow slowly … it’s easier to protect them than to try to repair damage that could be prevented. I appreciate your kind comments on "Know It And Grow It" … I’ll try to keep writing. For now, I wish you all the joy and peace of this season and sincerely say, "Have A Merry Christmas!"