As you know, I wanted to get something intriguing for this week’s puzzler from the NW Flower and Garden Show. Alas, there was nothing that jumped out at me, so I’m digging into my photo archives.
Here is a recent photo from a parking lot tree. About four feet up the trunk, I found this interesting growth. No, I don’t know what the tree species is because (a) it wasn’t in leaf and (b) I’m a taxonomy klutz. … Continue reading this article “Friday quiz…better late than never!”
Some odds and ends today that I either #1 was asked to post or #2 couldn’t resist posting. First for the picture that I was asked to post.
This, as far as we can tell (we being myself, my technician, and our grounds department), is the American elm tree that was being planted in that picture from 1909 which I posted on January 21. Dutch elm disease was devastating here in the mid 1900s as it was everywhere, but this region of the world was lucky and there were a number of escapes — and resistant trees (that’s an ongoing project of mine — working with DED resistant elms — I’ll probably post more about it this spring). … Continue reading this article “Odds ‘n Ends”
I’m one of those people who can’t resist things that are free. When you pass a yard that has a ‘FREE’ sign on a rusted-out lawn mower or an old piece of exercise equipment and wonder, “Who on earth would take that home?” Uh… that would be me. Actually, I blame my dad. The Old Man’s garage was crammed full with outboard motors missing pull-cords, mismatched lawn furniture, and all manner of secondhand tools in varying states of disrepair.… Continue reading this article “The evolution of tree care”
One of the roles I’ve evolved into over the past decade as an extension specialist at MSU is that of ‘the Conifer Guy’. Conifers are great and fascinating plants. The oldest trees in the world are conifers, the largest trees in the world are conifers, and some of the most interesting (at least to me) landscape plants are conifers. Unfortunately, for a variety of reasons, in the Upper Midwest we have gravitated to Colorado blue spruce more than just about any other conifer. … Continue reading this article “Blue Spruce Blues”
From this week’s e-mail file…
“Dear Dr. Cregg:
As I’ve done for many year, this year I harvested my “wild” Christmas tree from the Huron-Manistee National Forest. I cut the tree at ground level. Soon after I brought it home, it started sprouting new light green clumps of needles at the tips of many branches. Is the tree actually growing? It doesn’t seem possible that it’s still alive, but it seems to be thriving and I hate to toss the tree to the curb if it’s fighting for life.
I’m in Grand Rapids this week attending the Michigan Nursery and Landscape Association/Michigan Turf Foundation Great Lakes Trade EXPO. The topic for my talk today was Landscape Tree Fertilization. That might not sound like a subject that would generate controversy, but as with most things, there are camps emerging. There is a rising chorus of folks that suggest that landscape trees should not be fertilized with nitrogen. There are a couple of lines of evidence that bolster this point of view.
Twas the blog before Christmas… My last chance to post about Christmas trees for another year. I’m always surprised when I troll around the web or do interviews how many myths about Christmas trees still abound. So in the spirit of the season, a little Christmas tree myth-busting.
“Good grief. I’ve killed it.”
Using a real tree hurts the environment
Here’s a real post from the e-how.com website:
“Its so not fair to cut down all those baby trees, use them for a few weeks and then toss them by the curb for garbage removal.… Continue reading this article “O Tannenbaum!”
Thought we’d take a break from the invasive discussion (I have some throughts I’ll weigh in with on Mon.) In the meantime, here’s a photo of dwarf Alberta spruce not too far from my boyhood home in Olympia, WA. I get 2 or 3 of these calls each year; usually with a homehowner exclaiming, “I’ve got a tree growing out of my tree!”.
Among the many hats I wear, one of the most enjoyable is that of an Extension Specialist working with Christmas tree growers here in Michigan and surrounding states. I suppose part of the satisfaction stems from the fact that my first real job was shearing Christmas trees in southwest Washington during my high school summers. To give you an idea how long ago this was, the minimum wage when I started the summer between my sophomore and junior years was $2.20 per hour.… Continue reading this article “Growing a greener Christmas tree”
Great discussion over the weekend, with some very astute observations. If you looked at the brown needles under the tree in Friday’s picture, you may have noticed that some of them weren’t needles:
Not only was this tree planted too deeply, as several of you pointed out, but the burlap and twine were left intact. It appears the nylon twine has already started to girdle the trunk, based on the trunk swelling just above where the twine is wrapped.… Continue reading this article “Friday puzzle solved!”