Current Tree Grower’s Diary Letters
Post your letters about trees here and I’ll do my best to help you find an answer! Keep in mind that I do not reply via email. I post my responses HERE in the hopes of SHARING with people who might have similar questions.
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!
on 
Jules, you’ve barely changed a bit... on 
One thing... on 
My family calls me "the mamarazzi."
I have a Japanese Maple and a big piece broke off…can I reroot that piece of the tree?? Thank you!!
Growing Japanese red maple from a piece of the tree would be the same as growing from cuttings. It’s complicated. You’ll need to plant from new growth only (green stems) of 6 to 8 inches in length with only 2 or 3 leaves on the stem, cut at a diagonal where the leaf meets the stem. You’ll need rooting hormone, perlite, a plastic bag, a 40-watt shop light, patience, the right temperatures so the cuttings don’t fry or freeze. You’ll prep the cuttings, and leave them for about 8 weeks under the light, checking to be sure the temp stays around 70 degrees. Once you see white strands around the end of the cut, you can plant in the garden or in a container, but keep the baby tree away from extremes in weather for at least 10 days. After that you can plant outdoors, but if there’s a hard frost within a month of planting, they’ll die.
But to answer your SPECIFIC question, no, I don’t think you can “reroot that part of the tree.” You’d have to choose a few new-growth stems to plant.
Thank you! That’s a good start!!!
What a beautiful website! Thank you so much for sharing…
We are pulling out 3 large queen palms that just did not survive our central Florida winter. We were thinking about the Bradford pear but after reading what you had to say about it that is not going to happen. We live in Ocala, Fl. We do not want anymore palms. I need something that can withstand the heat and humidity in the summer as well as the cold in the winter. The branches need to start fairly high up so as not block our view of the golf course. Do you have any suggestions?
Hmmm, let me get back to you on that one…
Florida, particularly the middle part of the state is capable of growing a great many trees. Unfortunately they aren’t very easy to find since the overplanted queen palm is all the garden centers seem to stock. I used to joke that the queen palm is to florida what bradford pears are to the rest of the country.
Anyway, some trees that are reliable there are red maple, yes I did say red maple, american elm, chinese elm, sugarberry, shumard oak, sycamore, bald cypress, sweetgum and turkey oak. The ones I just mentioned should give you some decent fall color even down there and are fast growing to give you some shade. Make sure you have room for these some get large. You don’t want to plant too close to the house as queen palms normally are. You won’t find these at garden centers more than likely but you can try afnn.org and see if any growers near you have any they are willing to sell to a homeowner and if not ask where they can buy their trees. They will probably say to have your landscaper order it from them.
Thanks for that great response! I’ll be sure to tell Carol to come take a look.
Looking for info on the purple leaf plum. Your site came up first on the search engine. You’ve provided some great insight, that one may not find even on the more “professional” tree sites out there. Thanks!
Glad to be of help, Lisa. Good luck in your tree search!
I have been calling around to purchase an Armstrong Maple, have not been able to find a nursery that carries it. Do you recall where you purchased yours? Thanks
Our Armstrong maples were planted by the township, so unfortunately I don’t know what nursery they came from. I don’t know for a fact, but I think they came from a big tree farm nursery in Princeton, NJ. I know that doesn’t help much.
Good luck. Try the tree forums at GardenWeb.
Julie,
First off, thanks for all the great information on the Emerald Arborvitae! My wife and I are looking at planting these behind our house for privacy. We too were thinking of placing them every 2 feet but since reading your posts we’ve decided to put them about 3.5 feet apart. Do you think this is far enough?
Two other quick questions:
1) these trees will be in full sunlight for the morning and till about 2 or 3 pm when the sun ducks over the house – will this be enough sun time for them to grow well?
2) it looks like these trees grow pretty tall, but we’d ideally like to keep them to about 7 or 8 feet tall – if we continue to prune the tops each spring is this going to hurt the health of the tree?
Thank you for learning so much about these Arborvitae! Honestly, you know FAR more than the “plant and garden experts” over at Lowes and considerably more than even the staff over at our local nursery.
Thanks again!
Ben.
Provo, Utah. Climate zone 6b.
3.5 feet apart is great. Once you start pruning the tops, the trees will naturally get wider. Planting them that far apart will give them enough room to get well established first. The amount of sun sounds pretty good too. Full sun for 6 hours or longer is officially considered “full sun” so that should be plenty. Keep in mind that arbs are deer candy, and that in the beginning (first year or two) extra slow watering is key. Thanks for your compliments on my tree knowledge, but you should know that several of my arbs were destroyed by the heavy snows we got this winter. I probably could have prevented it if I’d been diligent about knocking the snow off. Not feeling very much like an expert with a bunch of dead and freaky looking trees in my yard.
Hello-
i was wondering if there is anything you can put on the bradford pear tree to reduce the smell.
after reading your site –i’m wondering if i should pull out the bradford pear ……i just planted it 3 days ago..but i dont want to give up enjoying the outdoors of my house.
and for how long does this last . how long is the blooming stage ?
this tree was also recommended to me in a nursery….but i dont want to give up my evenings outdoors with grandkids.
very glad i looked at your site. do you have any recommedations for south texas. i have no trees except the bradford now.
many thanks-
christina
Well, not everybody agrees that they smell. Maybe some don’t, I don’t know. All I know is that when my trees blossom, everybody hates it. When the bradfords downtown blossom, downtown stinks like a fishery. Yuck. Good news it only lasts a week or two. There’s nothing you can do to make the smell go away. If I were you, I’d honestly just take that new tree out. Problem is that nursery isn’t going to take it back, so you might want to just live with it. I mean, it’s not like the smell lasts all summer or anything. I’m afraid south Texas is a specialized climate that I don’t know a thing about. Ask your question in the tree forums at GardenWeb for tree planting advice. Good luck!
Hi,
I have a question about an Aristocrat Pear. I am renting a house in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, (suberb of Tulsa) and there are two Aristocrat pears in my backyard. The trunks are about 14 inches in diameter, and the trees are 20 to 30 feet tall. I just moved here last June. These poor trees have never been pruned, and there is alot of growth around the bottom of the tree. (suckers) One of the trees, has alot of small suckers, about 1/2 to 1 inch in diameter, the other tree has fewer, but they are about 4 to 5 inches in diameter.(almost like a whole other tree) Is there anything I can do?
Thank you,
Jimmy
I’m no expert, but if those were my trees, I’d cut all the suckers off immediately, and prevent any new ones from growing back. What’s the worst that can happen? The trees die. No problem. Replace with a better variety tree. Post your question on the tree forums at GardenWeb. Might get a completely different response. Good luck!
Oh, probably a good idea to check with the owner of the property before you trim the trees.
I would like to order fruitless (definitely no fruit at all)
flowering plum trees.
Please tell me where can I order them.
Thank you very much.
Sorry Regina. I don’t know. And buyer beware because the tag on my plum tree SAID it was fruitless, yet it produces a bumper crop every year. Maybe ask your question at the tree forums on GardenWeb. Good luck!
I love your pictures and have learned from them to identify many trees in our area. Yesterday our landscaper came quite late in the day to plant two trees, a 17′ willow oak and and a 14′ red maple. It was dark by the time they got the trees in the ground so we could not really see what they had done. This morning I’m looking at the trees and I feel quite certain that they are planted too deep in a hand-dug hole with straight, smooth sides and little width to the hole. I’ve seen trees in other folks’ landscapes planted in shallower, sloped holes, with some of the ball above the soil line and a layer of heavy mulch on top, where the tree’s collar is exposed slightly. I’m afraid these trees will sink over time and their roots will have trouble penetrating the smooth straight sides of the hole and may girdle the tree in our Virginia clay. My husband and I are sixty and would like to be able to enjoy some beauty and growth from these trees in the coming years. What do you think? Have we started out badly?
Honestly, it’s hard to say without a picture, but you’re right — the ideal way to plant a tree, especially one as large as the ones you’ve planted, is to insure that the top of the root flare is ABOVE ground level slightly. I originally planted my sugar maple too deep, and went out a few days later and dug a new hole right next to the original one to the point that I could shimmy the tree over into the higher plane, then fill in the deeper hole and shimmy the tree a little more until it rose to the proper planting depth. This, of course, also served to give the tree a very wide planting hole with loosened soil that extended at least 4 times the width of the root ball. That was about 10 years ago, and the tree is doing fine. I did a similar thing with my red maple — I planted it, then thought that it was too deep, so I shimmied it higher. It’s a lot of work though, this shimmying thing, and probably causes a lot of stress on an already stressed tree. I don’t recommend it unless you’re CERTAIN the trees are planted too deep. Of course, the time to fix the problem, if there is a problem, is now, not a year from now, and not 6 months from now either.
I have a dead tree in my backyard. And the smell is almost unbearable sometimes, as it seems to have rotted. Since I am renting the landlord decided it would be best to cut it down
to see if it would help with the stench. However, it did not at all. There is still a stump.. I was wondering if you knew anyway I could get rid of the smell.. or must I resort to a stump removal service. Stump removal here anyhow is quite expensive.
Hi Myranda,
Hmmm, there are some stump removal liquids available, but I don’t think they work very quickly. Mike poured something like that on a small stump in front of our house last spring and the stump looks exactly like it looked in the spring. He only used it once though because my sons and I freaked out when we found out Mike was trying to get rid of the stump. He didn’t know that the rest of his family uses the stump as a mudless step to the front door! Anyway, long ago when I had to have a stump removed in the backyard to make way for the treehouse, I paid a tree service $75 to bring in a grinder. Now THAT was quick and easy and well worth the money. But alas, I realize I’m not answering your question, so I submit the next best tactic — ask your question at GardenWeb’s tree forums. Good luck! If you get a reasonable solution, write me back because I’d like to know how the story turns out.
I just want to say thank you and at the same time let you know that I LOVE your site!!! I wish all too often I had started taking pictures of my yard as it evolved, and I am doing just that – vicariously through your site.
It’s beautiful, informative, captivating and for a plant/tree love like myself, just the perfect place to sit in front of and enjoy a cup of coffee and just R-E-L-A-X.
Thanks again for your work and perseverance. I love it!
Raph
Wow, thanks Raph! You made my day with that note!
Hi Jules, I see all of your recent tree posts. They all look great! They’re hanging in their pretty late in the month too.
My October Glory only lasted until last weekend, dropping leaves on Sunday-Tuesday. The peak color corresponded to dull rainy days with gray skies
I also had a problem this year with some sort of “leaf spot”. I guess it was early June that I started noticing little black spots on a good portion of the leaves. The tree grew quite a bit this year, and the leaves did their normal thing, but I wonder if I should be doing something to protect them. Do you ever spray your maples?
I’ve noticed the same problem with red maples in several nurseries.
Otherwise, I was busy planting this Fall after the “Great Street Tree Incident”, but I’m not sure if I’ve accomplished much. It was mostly little trees from FF, so I’ve mostly just created mulch islands. Planted a “Size 5″ American Hornbeam to take the edge off of the imbalance, along with Size Ones of two Whitespire birches (single and clump), one “Eddie’s White Wonder Hybrid dogwood”, and a couple of little European Hornbeams that I probably didn’t need. Still need to plant one or two real trees though, but that will have to wait until March. While a good portion of the lawn is still a disaster zone, I’ll have to admit the process has been fun
Jeff
I just have a quick question to ask you on all your experience. My tree this year began with many plums very healthy looking and plump however it has been dry in Georgia and when it came time for near the end of July when they are ready…they literly dehydrated from the tree and dropped with none that you could eat. Why did this happen?
Hi Kimberly, I’m no expert on good plum fruit, but it sounds to me like it might have been a water problem. Ask the question over at the Garden Web tree forums. Those guys really know their trees. Here’s a link:
http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/trees/
Julie –
Our 1950 ranch house sits about 150 feet from the road, atop a small hill. In the very early 1950s, the original owners planted deep pink crabapple trees in a straight line, evenly spaced, along the street (four to the right of the driveway, three to the left, as the driveway isn’t centered.) And they planted additional crabapples in complementary shades of paler pinks lining the gracefully curved driveway – probably eight to 10 to start, although only a few remain today. With the exception of one or two (that may have been replacements)they’re well into their decline. My husband loves linden trees – specifically the tilia cordata ‘greenspire’ that he watched grow on Route 1 North, near the Forrestal Village – and I love spring flowering trees, so we’re thinking of planting lindens along the street and ornamental cherry trees along the driveway.
Sounds like we have a plan but I’m having a hard time with the spacing of the lindens, mainly because the literature isn’t clear about the mature spread. I’ve seen as little as 20 feet, which I don’t believe at all, and, more often, 30 to 50 feet. Sounds like yours is already 30 feet wide and it’s only 11 years old.
So my question is this: Would you attempt to plant more than one greenspire in the 55-feet of lawn to the left of the driveway or more than two in the 78-foot lawn to the right? I know in Europe they plant some lindens as hedges but I think crowding the greenspire would would detract from its lovely silhouette. I’m even considering planting just one on each side of the driveway, as I’m not convinced that I’ll be happy with the asymmetry of one and two. On the wider side, there’s a very tall maple (I think it’s called a swamp maple) about 10 feet in from the property line, and there’s a medium-sized oak tree on my neighbor’s lawn, both of which, to my mind’s eye, will visually compete with a second linden in that stretch of lawn, should we go with the one-and-two design. Plus there’s a part of me that says that two lovely linens would frame the house in a very satisfying way.
Meanwhile, if we were to go with just two, how far back from the driveway would you plant them?
Before I close, I must tell you how much we your website. Not only is is lovely to look at, it offers more information on the greenspire linden than any other site or book we’ve found. And we’ve been doing LOTS of checking of websites, libraries and bookstores. Thank you for all of your work — and your beautiful craft — I could happily get lost for days in your website!
Sherry
Wow, thanks for your letter, Sherry! I honestly think that a row of greenspire lindens would be beautiful, but I agree that part of the appeal is being able to see the full silhouette. With 55 feet of lawn, I definitely wouldn’t plant more than 2. The mature spread is going to be at least 30 feet, and probably even wider. The problem with “mature spread” on tree tags is that there doesn’t seem to be a consensus among growers as to what “mature” is. Some call “mature” at 10 years, where others call “mature” at a time when the tree has reached is largest average size. That’s why there’s a discrepancy in the tags and literature you’ve seen. And you’re right. Mine has been planted here for 11 years, and has a spread of at around 30 feet. It has gotten to the stage where it is growing OUT more so than UP.
I’m thinking if I were you, I would plant one linden. Keep in mind there is a bit of a surface root problem with these trees, and they are messy in terms of twig loss throughout the year, especially winter. So, if I were going for symmetry, I’d plant one on either side of the driveway, and fill in with other, smaller trees for varying texture, color interest, and layering.
Good luck! Let me know how it goes!