Current Tree Grower’s Diary Letters
Post your letters about trees here and I’ll do my best to help you find an answer!
Disclaimer: I am not a tree expert, just a novice who has been studying trees for quite some time now. If you require an expert opinion, I suggest the forums over at TreeHelp.com or the tree forum at GardenWeb.
If you leave a letter, please state in the letter where you’re writing from so that we have a general idea of your climate zone. THANKS for all your encouragement and support!
Don’t forget to let us know where you’re writing from! City, town, or even a climate zone number will help! Thanks!
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My family calls me "the mamarazzi."
Hi,
I definatly have scale on my flowering plum, but where limbs meet the are ovalish growths some as long as 2 inches and are black or lighter and I can see what looks like a white powder on the growths. I do not know if its the same tree as yours, pink flowers where limbs meet, no fruit, red leaves and bark. It is about 5 years old. Can I do anything now about the scale and do you have any ideas on the growths. I looked at some pictures on the web and cannot tell if the growths are scales grown together or not. The tree looks otherwise healthy from afar, its upclose when you can see the scale thanks sharie
sorry I live in se michigan border toledo ohio
Hi Julie,
Stumbled across your great website as I am doing some research about what kind of tree we should plant. We just put in a beautiful patio and want a nice tree to give some color and some shade. The back of the house is very much like yours and gets the morning sun and it stays sunny in that area until around 3:00. I live outside Roochester, NY-so same zone as you. It will be around 14 feet from the corner of the garage and about 9 feet from the patio sitting wall. Any suggestions?
Thanks!!
Dawn
Pretty flower blossoms and interesting color at leaf-out can be awesome, but I personally love a tree with vibrant and distinctive fall color. So if I could plant a new tree now in a location so close to my house, I would consider a dogwood (mine has beautiful flowers and awesome red fall color), a serviceberry (pretty flowers, easy to grow, hearty), or a Forest Pansy redbud (pretty and interesting flowers, red leaves through July, awesome yellow fall color, but it’s rather short-lived so keep that in mind).
Yeah, I’d pick the redbud! With proper pruning and proper protection from lawn mowers and weed eaters, they can live a long happy life!
I wanted to find out the best time to prune branches from linden trees. My wife and I are gurdiens for a large estate in SW France and we have an avenue of linden trees but many branches are growing downward and are a pain when mowing so I wanted to cut the lower ones off. The problem is we have been told that linden trees bleed from cutting and can then be prone to desease. Right now the weather is sunny and hot. Any info would be really appreciated.
Thanks
I would prune in late fall, early winter to avoid problems like you said, but if you notice any dead wood, you can prune that at any time.
But honestly, if I had branches hanging down bothering me, I’d prune mine whenever I felt like it. But that’s just me.
Hi Julie,
We planted a Thundercloud plum tree 7 years ago. It has been gorgeous. We just noticed today that one of the main branches in the middle (that grows almost straight up) has dies. Why do you think that just one branch would die? My husband jusb cut it off where it attaches to the trunk. It had attached branches that were not quite “dead” but were starting to wilt. So, it is all gone now. Your comments and helpful hints are appreciated.
Erika Reardon
St. Helens, Or (30 minutes from Portland)
That doesn’t sound good — for a tree to lose its main central branch and for the others to be wilting. Purple leaf plum is notoriously a short-lived tree though. Lots of diseases and insect problems. I know they’re beautiful, but I truly think you’re better off without it. Plant a serviceberry or crabapple in its place! (But make sure the disease isn’t catchy first.)
I just want to compliment you on your look. It’s really tasteful.
Thank you!
Hi, I ran across your site while I was looking up information on how to plant cherry trees from seeds. I am no garderner, my husband does that, and this is the reason for my curiosity. Ihave two grandsons who are avid fans of thier grand father and gardening. these young lads are 3 and 4 yrs old. we were having a treat of fresh (From the grocery) black cherries, which I know are grown in mid wisconsin. My grandsons want to plant some of the seeds to grow some cherry trees. My question, can you? what type of season do they need, length until germination, type of soil, depth to plant, etc etc. if we do this with them we want to do it right. I appreceate any assistance, advice. Northern wisconsin, on the Bayfield Pennensula, which is excellent apple growing as is door county where the cherries grow. Thank you.
I’m sorry, Lynne, but I have no idea. I suggest asking your question at the Garden Web tree forums. Here’s a link. Click here for the Garden Web tree forum.
Mrs. Shaver;
My wife & I are considering a ‘Bonfire’ Sugar Maple after reading of your fond (yet tragic) short experience w/one. One related question: in that posting, you mention that you prefer red maples to sugar maples. I’m puzzled by this, since I understand that sugar maples have stronger wood grain, longer life, less problems w/surface roots, are every bit as pretty as the reds, and only have the drawback of slower growth rate. Please elaborate for me why you prefer reds over sugars. Thanks, great job w/your tree selections, and great blog! Sincerely,
Mitch & Cathy Harris
Did I say that? No no no. I like sugar maples better. LIke you said, stronger wood, not so many problems regarding surface roots. Oh pul-eeze show me where I said that and I’ll delete it!!!
P.S. My sugar maple has been a rather fast grower. It’s every bit as big as the reds I planted at the same time 10 years or so ago.
Mrs. Shaver;
We found the related comment you made; in Julie’s Trees section, Bonfire Sugar Maple subsection, under Julie’s Comments you say “since I preferred the red maple to the sugar maple for many reasons”, then further elaborate on your decision to axe the Bonfire maple & leave the October Glory red maple. We mistook your comment about those specific 2 trees to be a generalized preference of reds over sugars – sorry!
Also sorry to have not included our location as you requested for geography lessons; we live in south central MO, specifically Dent County in the Ozark highlands. Since moving here & inheriting a big yard, we have planted several trees and are enjoying many pre-existing ones as follows:
(planted)
apricot, Norway spruce, Japanese ‘Bloodgood’ red maple, ‘October Glory’ red maple, tulip poplar, eastern redbud, shortleaf pine, pecan
(pre-existing)
black walnut, silver maple, post oak, northern catalpa, dogwood, eastern redcedar, mimosa, persimmon, black cherry
As mentioned before, we still have more planting planned, specifically a Bonfire sugar maple, 2 more shortleaf pines, another pecan, another tulip poplar, and 2 different DED-resistant American elm cultivars. Your blog was a help in picking the Bonfire cultivar for a sugar maple, and seeing other trees in your yard that we have just planted was a reassurance that our yard will look great in 5 years or so! Thanks again and God bless,
Mitch & Cathy
Aha! Yes, I was referring to that particular Bonfire sugar I had in my backyard. That was a case of “right tree, wrong location” I think. In retrospect, I should have planned the planting of trees a lot better than I did.
But you see, I couldn’t cut down the October Glory. We planted that one in honor of our son, Brad, who was born in October. It’s his tree. Can you imagine the therapy bills if we cut down his tree?
Congratulations on all of your plantings, and on your list of existing trees. Wish I had a big yard like that! Soooo jealous about the elms! –jws
My neighbor gave me a few clipping of his Purple Plum Tree. Do I need to put it in water to get roots or can I just put them in the dirt? Any help you can give me would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
Well, I’m no expert on this subject, that’s for sure, but I would think you can grow purple plum from cuttings with the right care. Try putting them in the dirt in a protected location (a pot inside the house in a sunny window) for a few days, then move the pot outside if it seems to be working. Research how to grow trees from cuttings first though. I think there are some specific things you can do to improve your chances of success. Like I said, I’m no expert.
will a dogwood tree grow in a sizable pot, or container? I’m in northern california…sf bay area
Hi Kevin,
I think if the pot were big enough, and with particular attention to soil balance, and with the right light and temperature variations, it probably would for a while. Dogwoods are particular about planting location, more so than many other trees, so even in the ground, it’s rather a hit-or-miss proposition. Ask anybody who ever planted one in the wrong location — too sunny, too shady, not enough acid in the soil, too much competition from the wrong neighbor tree, too much disturbance from animals. Takes these babies a while to get established too. I would think the safest dogwood to plant in a container would be a Kousa. Don’t know how many years you’ll get though. It probably wouldn’t be happy as an indoor tree though. It needs a winter.
Hi Jules,
I wonder if you would help settle a controversy in tree planting methods. The issue is the infamous burlap bag. The guy from the nursery who sometimes does planting for me likes to leave the bag on the newly planted root ball, saying it will disintegrate with time. My girlfriend is in the anti-burlap bag camp, claiming that the tree will be stressed for the first year due to roots curling up against the bag. I have generally taken a middle course, easing my workman into cutting the top of the bag away, and I’ll sometimes go back later and cut away some more. If I left him to his own volition, I don’t even think he would take the twine off of the neck though. What’s your stand on this?
Jeff
I’m in the same camp as you, Jeff. I say leave the bag, but cut away the top so that the top of the rootball is completely open, with the bottom of the burlap supporting the existing root system as the tree is lowered into the planting hole. It will disintegrate with time as long as it is, in fact, burlap and not plastic.
When the guy planted our two street trees, he didn’t even loosen the burlap and twine at the top of the root flare. I didn’t realize this until a year later when the trees were looking particularly wilty even with regular deep watering and my normal paranoia about newly planted trees. I dug into the mulch a little to see if there were any bugs or anything and noticed the choking twine. Once I cut it away, it was clear that the twine really was causing a problem — it was so tight!
I pulled the mulch back, cut away the twine and pulled the burlap back a good bit, probably at least 12 inches all around the tree, then replaced the mulch. Eight years later, both trees are looking great — 30 feet tall and almost looking like middle age trees. The driveway one shades the driveway a lot now too. And I love the shade they both throw onto the sidewalk. Don’t you love a shady sidewalk? I do.
Hi Julie,
I was so excited to find your site, it is fantastic! We live in Kansas City, MO and we have been at our house for almost 3 years. When we bought the house we were told we had a plum tree. It was small and has green leaves in the spring and dark purple leaves in the summer. We were so excited to see what we thought were a TON of plums starting to bud for the first time this year. They were a little smaller than grapes and a shiny purplish color. Anyway, just a week later I looked at the tree and every single one is gone! So my question is: is it a plum tree, and what happened to the fruit? If it was birds, which I have never noticed, what can be done. Could anything take out so much fruit, or is it natural for them to just go away if they are not ready to grow bigger (I read it can take 4-5 years)? Thanks for your time.
Ummm, you got me on this one. My plum tree is purple all the time, never green, except I have seen some that if they’re in total shade all the time, they’re green. Is yours in shade? Not sure about that fruit situation either. I wouldn’t think ALL the fruit would just disappear without some evidence of it having been there. Very weird. Post a reply with a link to a picture, if you can.
Hi there,
How do you fix a tree that’s been planted too deep? Im pretty sure that’s the trouble with my struggling tree, but I don’t want to kill it in an attempt to fix it. It has no leaves on the top and some of the lower branches have died. The tree is alive however, and even has new growth popping up from the very bottom. Thanks in advance for your help!
Christine
That doesn’t sound good. How big is the tree?
It’s not too big – probably came in a 5 Gal bucket about a year ago.
do dogwoods ever have what looks like fuzzy snow that comes off the tree?I live in western ny in a town called Albion.We have TONS of what looks like cotton floating all over the place and someone told me its from the dogwoods.Thanks much,janey
Hi Janey,
Those fluffy white things floating through the air are most likely from cottonwood trees, several species of the poplar family. I’ve not seen white fluffy things floating off dogwoods. Hope that helps.
Hello, I am trying to figure out what tree this nut came from. Thought it might be the purple beech and was hoping you might know. Here is a link to the picture:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/katealbright/3609253110/
Thanks!
Looks like a beech nut to me. Awesome macro shot! I love it!
hi julie-
i just replaced a damaged 75 year old ash tree with a 4″/ 15′ tall sunset maple- shes beutiful!! it has been a week since planting (philadelphia) and i have noticed the leaves seem as though they are wilting????? could you please respond as to why this may be occuring and is there anything i should do??
thanks
brett
It’s probably just transplant shock, Brett. Keep an eye on the tree, and make sure it’s getting a once a week slooooooow soak with the water hose if the soil is dry 6 inches down. Sorry about your ash tree.
Good luck with the new sunset maple.