Are the Pests & Diseases on My Plants Serious?
We live in an time when life has become medicalized. Despite living longer and more healthy lives than any human beings who came before us, we are intensely focused on the dangers of…
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Pruning Young Trees for Future Strength and Long Life – Part 2, Equipment and pruning techniques
This is the second part of an extended blog about the pruning of young trees. Many people just plant a new tree and expect it to develop perfectly all by itself. Sometimes that…
Plant Trees for the Future – Here’s How to Succeed
Economists tell us that the further away a reward is, the less we will pay for it today. Our world, and modern economy, is built on having it now, as soon as possible,…
Is It Too Late For Fall Planting?
“Am I too late to plant?” Seems like a simple question, so what’s the answer? It’s complicated! Factors like the type of tree, where you live, if the tree is in a container…
Choosing a Small Tree for Your Garden
As gardens have become smaller, planting trees has become harder. There is an irony to this, as a time when everyone is being urged to plant more trees, but it is important to…
Trees and Shrubs for Alkaline Soils – Part 1
The Right Plant in the Right Place is a slogan that you will often hear from professional landscape designers and horticulturists. It’s a simple principle, but one often ignored in the rush to…
Beautiful Trees for Wet Ground
It doesn’t take much looking for plants to meet the dreaded phrase – grow in ‘well-drained’ soil. It sometimes seems like every tree or bush needs these mythic conditions. Look at many gardens,…
White Birch is Back, and It’s Borer Proof
Back in the days when throwing chemicals at your garden was the standard way to deal with any problem, from lawn weeds to tree diseases or pests, you used to see many white…
Should I Remove That Tree?
Everyone loves trees, and we love even more older trees, because we know how long it takes for a tree to grow to maturity. That makes it difficult for us to take down…
Choose the Right Red Maple for Your Garden
There was a time when our streets were lined with elm trees, but those days are gone. Much more likely today is to find streets lined with Red Maple, Acer rubrum, a native…
Should I Trim My Trees?
Trees are great to have on your property, bringing beauty and shade, cleaning the air and removing CO2 from the atmosphere – we should all be planting more of them. Older trees, though,…
Nuts About Pecans? – Then Grow Your Own
These days it seems everyone is talking about – and eating – nuts. The peanut – not a nut at all, but a type of bean – is of course central to American…
Give Them Room! Spacing Trees Correctly
A drive around any older neighborhood will quickly show you giant trees right up against houses, blocking windows, damaging foundations and drains, and making rooms dark and gloomy. Bad decisions about planting distances…
Native Trees from the Four Corners of the Country
A big trend in gardening is growing native plants. This began with wildflowers, but it has spread to trees and shrubs too, especially with all the alarming stories of invasive species escaping gardens…
5 Ways to Give Your Trees Their Brightest Fall Colors
As the days shorten, and the weather becomes cooler, the grim prospect of winter is softened by the glories of fall. For a short time, our trees surrounded us in the brilliance of…
How to Choose a Shade Tree
When you move into a new home, especially a newly-built home, the garden is often left, while you settle into the house. That is only naturally, but there are two things that you…
Welcome Back to the American Chestnut
We hear a lot today about the loss of species, and mass extinctions. Yet less than a hundred years ago there was a mass extinction on a huge scale right here in North…
Ficus Tree
At The Tree Center we think all trees are interesting, but we have to admit that some go beyond that into the territory of absolutely fascinating. A classic example of those are ficus…