One of an arborists’ main duties is diagnosing and treating insect problems in the landscape. Trees and shrubs act as the food for many different insects some of which reduce the vigor and health of the plant. Sometimes the insect pest is nothing more than a nuisance, but in other situations, the life of the […]
Part II – Installation
Welcome back to our ongoing three part discussion on new plant installation and tree planting techniques. In part 1, we discussed some simple steps that can be incorporated into your planning to make the most of your landscape design.
After you’ve carefully considered all the factors in determining which plant suits […]
Tree diseases that infect foliage are called foliar diseases. Specific foliage diseases are associated with a particular tree species. The adaptation of disease pathogens to circumvent a tree hosts defense mechanism results in susceptibility to a particular disease pathogen. Trees may have some level of genetic-related resistance to particular diseases so that infection may be […]
As an Arborist and as someone who truly appreciates the natural flora that I’m privileged to work with on a daily basis, there are few things as exciting and gratifying as seeing a new addition to the landscape. Whether tree, shrub, groundcover, or herbaceous plants, each new addition to a yard adds […]
Tree insect pests are capable of impacting the health and longevity of mature trees. This may be accomplished by reducing photosynthetic capacity, draining carbohydrate reserves, reducing water and photosynthate movement within trees, opening up wounds for disease pathogen invasion and/or direct inoculation of trees with pathogens, to mention a few. Whether a particular insect will […]
Safety concerns increase as trees grow larger and mature. That small tree planted to provide some shade for the house will at some point start to take command of its space and may soon tower over your house. Mature trees in smaller properties can also impact neighboring lots and houses. One may readily envision the […]
One of the more frequently administered care practices for mature trees is pruning. Pruning mature trees has a much different emphasis as compared to younger trees. Individual tree branches of younger, established trees put out more incremental annual woody growth per growing shoot and put out larger foliage relative to mature trees. Often younger tree […]
When is a tree considered old? There are records of individual trees of certain species that have reached over 4000 years of age. The trees growing in our yards, however, are not likely to come close to this. Generally, most of the tree species growing in landscapes here in the northeast US have an average […]
Hurricane Sandy’s effects in Metro West Boston were less than what we anticipated. Clients with tree damage were low in number. Why did Irene cause so much damage last year compared to Sandy this year? Several reasons may explain this. The first is that Irene last year took out severely weakened and compromised limbs […]
During the early fall season trees and shrubs will begin to reduce their photosynthate production capacity and transition to fall foliage senescence. For deciduous trees and shrubs this will involve a breakdown of chlorophyll molecules in order release nitrogen bound to it so it may be salvaged and reused by the plant. When chlorophyll starts […]