This spring just gets crazier. Look at this ash tree at our old house today.



The lower branches have small, black, crunchy leaves.

I've considered three possibilities: fire, disease, and frost. There's no other evidence of fire (or any reason to think our sons built a bonfire under it), so I gave more thought to disease and frost.

I can imagine a disease that might start at the trunk and not kill the ends of the branches right away, but there are no green leaves on the ends of the lower branches.

That leaves frost. But I'm surprised to see such a sharp dividing line, and I'm surprised the damage isn't reversed. In other words, I would expect the lower branches to be OK and the upper branches to be damaged. Isn't the air warmer next to the ground?

Another possibility is cold, heavy air sinking, but this tree is out in the open and not in a low spot.

One more clue: the ash tree at our "new" house has no leaves. I checked today, and the buds on it are black and crunchy. It has no green on it all.

Normally new leaves will come out if the early ones freeze, so I still expect the trees to be OK. But as I said, this is crazy. I'm used to waiting for May for trees to leaf out, but not June!