MENUSpring will soon wake up from its winter slumber, and with it will come the rainbow of color that we all look forward to. Some call it a rebirth, but it is really a reawakening.This color arrives relatively quietly. First the crocus peeks its colorful petals out of the ground, even if it’s covered with snow. Satisfied with its surroundings and that spring is on its way, more crocus appear. Depending on how many crocus you’ve planted, you may be swimming in a sea of color.As the crocus begins to fade, it’s replaced by daffodils, tulips and hyacinths, but these early bloomers are just the leaders of a whole parade of spring color. Trees and shrubs (woody plants), as well as herbaceous plants, bloom in spring.Forsythia is the first shrub to bloom, showing off its bright yellow flowers. Azaleas and rhododendrons follow. Here in our area, all of this is just a prelude to Rochester’s favorite flower, the lilac.Unlike annuals and perennials, there’s no need to pinch off spent flowers from woody plants. They set their flower buds way back in the fall, so enjoy them while they’re here because, when they’re gone, they’re gone until next year.If your flowering trees and shrubs need pruning, resist the temptation to prune them now. These plants should be pruned after they bloom. Otherwise, you may cut off the flower buds. It’s difficult to distinguish between flower buds and leaf buds. Our professionals learn the difference in their horticulture classes, but for the untrained eye, the two buds can be indistinguishable.Following the initial burst of color, the rainbow will begin fading to green. Flowers and their stems will turn brown on your spring bulb plants. Go ahead and cut off the spent flowers right at the base of the stem. However, don’t cut off the green leaves. They’re hard at work making food through photosynthesis and storing it in the bulb to give them the energy to flower and leaf out next year. Many herbaceous perennials will continue to bloom if you pinch off spent flowers once they’ve withered but before they drop their seeds.After woody plants have finished flowering and leafed out, they can be pruned. Remember to cut branches back to a branch big enough to be able to take over the removed branches’ function. Also, never climb a tree or even a ladder. It’s dangerous. Instead, give us a call and let our well trained, equipped, insured professional arborists do your pruning.
Horticulture and gardening seem to be shrouded in some kind of a mystique. Too many people believe the proverbial “green thumb” is an actual indicator of whether or not a person can grow plants.I believe that the green thumb myth is based on our agrarian forebears who could grow plants without any real knowledge of how they grew. This approach came about by trial and error and those said to inherit the green thumb simply observed what their parents and grandparents did, copied them and passed the information on to their descendants.The fact is that knowledge of how plants grow and how to care for them can be acquired, and there are many sources of this knowledge available to people of all ages and socioeconomic status.This knowledge can be acquired from the many books available at the library or local bookstore. You can also go online, but the information you’re seeking may not be as reliable as a published book that has been fact-checked, edited and, possibly, even peer reviewed.Here in our area, we have excellent gardening education resources. In our hometown of Webster, we have the renowned Webster Arboretum that conducts classes on various gardening and horticulture subjects. In Rochester, the Rochester Civic Garden Center publishes a whole seasonal catalog of courses. This catalog is available online (www.rcgc.org) and in paper form. Both of these organizations are membership organizations so the discounted member fees for their educational programs can more than make up for the membership cost.Each state has a cooperative extension service within its state agricultural college and each operates a Master Gardener program. There’s no charge for the excellent, comprehensive educational program that Master Gardeners receive. In exchange, however, you have to volunteer for at least a minimum number of service hours. This service may take the form of answering questions on the phone at the Cooperative Extension office, talking to garden clubs and other interested organizations, writing for the newsletter or a variety of other outreach activities.While botany and horticulture are subjects that can be learned, good landscape design requires a certain amount of “God-given” talent in addition to sound horticulture knowledge. Also, the best horticulture knowledge cannot prepare you for the physical labor needed to install a new landscape or maintain large trees.The most important lesson you can learn is to know what you can do well and identify your limitations. Do those tasks that you are able to do and want to do and hire the best people you know to do the other stuff. That’s why we’re here. We really like to work in partnership with knowledgeable property owners to create and maintain beautiful landscapes. Visit us at www.birchcrestlandscape.com.
If last week’s blog inspired you to expand your horticulture knowledge, I’d like to make some suggestions on how you can share that knowledge. There’s a real need for this knowledge beyond the confines of your own, private garden.The Webster Arboretum and Rochester Civic Garden Center were two suggested sources for horticulture-related educational classes. Chances are you joined the organization you chose for your classes, and they’ll never be at a loss for ways to help. They would certainly appreciate your assistance.As I explained last week, the Master Gardener program requires volunteer outreach work. Cooperative Extension hopes, however, that you won’t limit your volunteer service to the minimum number of hours. They would like you to continue volunteering for the task you undertook originally or a different task. The Master Gardener program couldn’t survive if everyone just worked the minimum. They depend on people continuing to volunteer and moving up the ranks in the organization. Much of the program is led by volunteers.Sustainability is today’s buzzword and we have a number of cooperative, sustainable farms that practice “community supported agriculture.” These farms operate with minimal staff and many volunteers. If you enjoy fresh vegetables and don’t have the space for a sizeable garden, a CSA membership might be just right for you. Volunteering at a CSA might also be a way to apply the horticulture knowledge you acquired or are acquiring.The ideas above are just a few of the abounding opportunities to volunteer or to work professionally in the gardening or landscape field. Don’t forget the reason you sought to expand your horticulture and gardening knowledge – your own landscape garden. Budget enough time to be sure it receives the tender loving care that it deserves. And, don’t forget that we’re here to provide any assistance you want or need.
The winter of 2014-15 was far from benign, but trees fared quite well. That’s because we didn’t have any really heavy wind or ice storms, which can wreak havoc with trees.Also, we didn’t have constant temperature fluctuations. Rather it got cold and stayed that way, which is good for trees. Contrary to popular belief, it isn’t the extreme cold that causes tree damage. It’s the changes from cold to warm and back. Extended warm spells are especially bad for trees. They think that the warmth is here to stay and may begin to break dormancy. Then the weather turns cold again and they’re “confused.” The only way continual cold weather all through the winter will harm your trees is if they aren’t hardy in our zone 5-6 climate, or if you’ve planted them on the windward side of your house and they don’t like wind, of if they’re in the shade and they like full sun. In these cases, they were stressed before winter ever started.Have you checked around the base of trees for girdling by rabbits, mice and other animals? This would’ve been the ideal winter for this to happen. Mice like to eat in private and the amount and duration of snow cover afforded them the opportunity to do just that. Rabbits, on the other hand, dine out in the open above the snow. As a result, trees can suffer from both of these varmints.It’s bad any time animals feast on your valuable trees. When they eat all the way around a tree, however, the tree is usually doomed. The rodents eat the bark and the tender, tasty layers beneath the bark. These are also the layers that contain most of the tree’s vascular system for transporting water and nutrients up the tree and for transporting food back down to the roots. There is an expensive surgical procedure, called a bridge graft, in which small twigs are grafted all the way around the tree’s circumference to bridge the girdle. Your tree has to be extremely valuable to justify this investment.Anything I tell you now is like closing the barn door after the horse escapes. But, you can tuck these ideas away for fall when you’re getting ready for next winter. First, be sure you don’t have mulch volcanoes or any mulch right up against the trunk. Be sure there’s no high grass growing close to the trunk. Finally, wrap the trunk in screening or hardware cloth from the base to about a foot above the typical high point of the snow. In summer, be sure to remove this protection to allow the trunk to grow.Some other problems, which I’ve written about before, include frost cracks caused by temperature fluctuations, winter burn on evergreens caused by desiccation, and salt damage affecting trees planted too close to salt treated roadways, driveways and walkways. Another problem is sunscald, which is actually a canker caused by temperature fluctuations and affecting the trunk. Spring freezes can cause a similar problem that affects the new foliage, and freezing can also damage the roots of some species.As winter wanes and spring returns, inspecting your woody plants can be one of your first “green thumb” tasks for the new season. If you find any of the problems described above, or any not described above, please call us for a professional evaluation with recommendations for remedying the situation.
As you plan your spring cleanup chores, be sure to include your lawn in those plans. Lawns take a real beating in winter, yet they spring back with very little assistance. But, that’s not to say that you can just leave your lawn to its own devices.When the snow melts and the ground firms up, it’s time to take a walk in the grass. Look for anything that’s different from when you put your lawn to bed last fall.The first thing you’ll spot is debris. The wind may have blown twigs and even tree branches from your yard or the neighbors’. You may also find trash the wind has blown into your yard. It needs to be picked up or raked up and thrown back in the trash or recycling.While big items like jars and cans can be picked up easily, it’s best to rake the other debris, like fallen twigs and branches. A rake will move more of the small debris. You’ll even be surprised to see litter in the pile that you didn’t see in the lawn. This includes such things as dead grass and small items that were down in the thatch so you missed them during your walk through.If winter descended on us before you were able to rake all of your fall leaves, go ahead and rake them up and dispose of them now.During your walk through, look for diseases and bare spots. Look for this also while raking leaves. There are several fungal diseases that attack turfgrass in winter. Fungus thrives in damp, dark, wet conditions. Some diseases cause the grass to turn brown or gray in patches. Others leave circles of dead grass.These diseases are caused by freezing and thawing during the winter. Snow falls and stays on the ground. As the temperature rises, the snow melts from the bottom, depositing water on the lawn. This water is still covered by snow, providing ideal conditions for fungus. By the time all the snow has melted, the disease has done visible damage.To repair your lawn, rake out all the dead grass and throw it away. Don’t compost it since it’s probably loaded with fungal spores. Use an iron rake for this task. That will rough up the soil as you rake out the dead grass, saving you an operation.If you have only small bare spots, they’ll probably fill in through the spread of adjacent grass. For larger spots, you’ll have to overseed. It’s best to do that before adventitious weed seeds germinate in that space.Before overseeding, add organic matter or compost to the bare areas. Then spread the seed and, using your iron rake, rake the seed and compost into the soil. Be sure your new seeds receive at least an inch of water a week either from rain or irrigation. Remember, it’s best to apply the whole inch at once rather than just sprinkling the surface. Sprinkling encourages weak, shallow roots. You want deep, strong roots.As always, call us if you’d rather have our professionals do this job than tackling it yourself.
We’ve discussed pruning trees in winter while they are defoliated and their skeletons are visible. If you haven’t had your trees pruned yet, please call so we can schedule you. Remember, tree pruning isn’t a do-it-yourself project.Our crews will continue pruning most trees even after they leaf out, but they know how to do it safely for both the tree and themselves. We will begin putting off pruning several trees for awhile in the spring, especially those that “bleed.” Maple is the most common. Their “blood,” of course, is maple sap.This is also a good time to prune deciduous shrubs. Like trees, they are dormant and their structure is visible, allowing you to see deeply inside their thicket of branches. We don’t recommend that you prune spring flowering shrubs (and trees) like lilacs now, however. To the untrained eye, buds often look the same, and there’s a real danger that you’ll prune off this spring’s flowers – the very reason why you planted the shrub or tree. Our professionals are trained to differentiate flower and leaf buds.Suppose one of your favorite shrubs is planted in the wrong place? Or you find that a tree you planted several years ago is not doing well because it’s the wrong tree in the wrong place? A good time to move it would be soon after the snow melts and the ground thaws. The ground will be soft, making the job of digging the plant out of its current site easier. If you re not among the faint of heart and are willing to tackle this heavy, dirty job yourself, here are a few tips:
If you are among the faint of heart, one of our landscape crews would be happy to transplant your shrub or tree for you.
We’ve had enough winter. If you’re like most gardeners and lawnophiles, you’re getting antsy to get out and get your hands dirty. That’s fine, but don’t push it. Don’t try to work in mud.After the snow melts, wait for the soil to firm up enough to support you when you step on it. Take a small handful of soil, roll it into a ball and squeeze it. If water comes out of it like a wrung-out sponge, go back into the house and enjoy looking out the window at your landscape.Don’t be in a hurry to remove the extra mulch you spread at the beginning of winter. Wait for the soil to rise above freezing and stay there. Then start removing it gradually to let plants acclimate to the spring temperatures without that extra “coat.” Most of us don’t just remove our winter coat and jump into tee shirts and shorts. We change clothing gradually to acclimate to the changing seasons. Plants like to do the same. It’s better to remove mulch late than early.If you see plants in your planting beds whose roots have heaved out of the soil, push them back into the soil. Don’t be rough with them. If they resist being pushed, take a trowel and pull the soil around the roots back, reset the plant and backfill.This is also a good time to divide and transplant summer blooming perennials. Either spread them around your yard or share them with a friend. There’s enough color for everyone’s enjoyment. Just dig up a perennial, split the root into four sections. Put one section back into the hole from which it came and plant the other three elsewhere.Arguably, weeding is the most unpleasant spring task, but one that has to be done. Weeding while dormant reduces the number of weeds that will spring to life, flower and overrun your landscape. Pulling weeds is considered the most effective control. So, start the season with clean beds.Spring is also the time to cut back your ornamental grasses. You enjoyed their tan color and fuzzy seedheads sticking up above the snow and swaying in the wind. Now they have done their job and its time to cut them back so they can grow anew and provide the same pleasure next winter.Springtime is also a good time to prune your roses.Finally, when your spring flowers have finished blooming, it’s OK to cut off the spent flowers but not the green leaves. These have to make food through photosynthesis. This food is stored in the roots so the plants will bloom next year. The leaves will let you know when they are through making food by turning yellow. Then you can cut them back.
Nobody who lives in our area needs to be reminded that this has been a brutal winter. However, you may need a reminder about what this weather is doing to your valuable trees and shrubs. It’s drying out the leaves, needles or even trunk and stem tissue (i.e. desiccating them). Even our dormant deciduous plants may be subject to desiccation according to a consumer horticulture bulletin from Purdue University.We’ve had a lot of snow, but we’ve also had a lot of wind, and it’s the wind that causes desiccation. Woody plants, especially evergreens, continue to function through the winter, giving off water through transpiration. This is part of the photosynthesis process. With the little bit of sun we’ve had, you wouldn’t think plants would be able to photosynthesize, but they do.During transpiration, water is given off through the leaves or needles. The wind then blows the droplets away, and there is no way the roots can absorb more water through the frozen soil. Broadleaf evergreens’ leaves may turn brown at the edges or they may turn red or purple and curl. Needled evergreens will have tan spots where the needles were just too dry to sustain themselves.According to the Purdue bulletin, severely desiccated deciduous trees will have dead twigs and buds. Some twigs will leaf out but die in the summer, especially if it’s a dry summer.If you had anti-desiccant applied in the fall, you may need a second application. If you didn’t take this cost effective measure to protect your trees and shrubs, call for an application now. As soon as the snow melts sufficiently that we have access to the plants, we’ll begin scheduling anti-desiccant applications.If you aren’t familiar with this product, it’s a clear, wax like material that coats the plant. Sunlight can get through it for photosynthesis. However, when the leaves transpire, the anti-desiccant prevents the wind from blowing the droplets of water away. Instead, they’re reabsorbed into the leaf and keep it from drying out.
If you’re taking a wait and see attitude about Plant Health Care, the results could be very costly. We recommend that you have a professional Plant Health Care strategy in place before your plants show symptoms of any insect infestations or diseases this spring.Waiting gives pests an opportunity to gain a foothold. Active planning will allow us to take early, pre-emptive action. Soon, our Plant Health Care professionals will be applying dormant oil to trees. This very thin petroleum product, much like an extremely diluted form of the petroleum jelly we put on burns, coats the tree surface and the dormant, overwintering target insects. This coating smothers insects like aphids, scale and spider mites while they sleep.As good as dormant oil is, it has a very small window of opportunity. It must be applied after temperatures rise above freezing and into the 40s but before the insects wake up or the tree’s flower and leaf buds break. The required paperwork will have to be in place before we can apply this, or any treatment.A number of other insects overwinter in the egg stage and hatch in spring. Gypsy moth is one of them. Treatment is most effective if applied while the larvae are still small, young and weak. At that time, treatment can also be less aggressive than when the larvae are older and stronger.If you didn’t have your ash trees treated for emerald ash borer in the fall, you should have them treated in the early spring. That’s when the adults emerge, mate and lay their eggs.It appears that the list of pests eyeing your valuable trees is endless and continually changing. That’s why a professional Plant Health Care program is much more cost effective than calling for treatment when you see a pest on your trees.
Here’s a winter task that can save money on your energy bills throughout the year. Use this cold weather to check out where your home is drafty and determine whether outdoor plants can help reduce the effects of those drafts.Tree and shrub placement, as well as species selection, can reduce energy bills year round. The general rule is that planting evergreens on the north and west side of your home can protect it from winter winds. Planting deciduous trees to the south and east can let the sun increase your home’s warmth in winter and reduce the amount of sun beating down on it in summer. But, that’s just a generality. Here’s the rest of the story.The U.S. Forest Services says that three “optimal and well placed landscape trees” can reduce the annual heating and cooling cost of a well insulated home by 6.5 percent annually. These don’t necessarily have to be very tall trees. A row of 20 foot evergreens can protect an area up to 200 feet from them. This row of trees will direct wind up and over your home, much like those deflectors you see on big trucks going down the highway.Plant shrubs near the foundation where they’ll act as a buffer to cold air coming into the building. Planting more shrubs further away from the house on the side of the prevailing wind can act as a snow fence.Before physicists or heating and air conditioning people add comments, let me say that I know cold is caused by heat loss. However, winter winds blow cold air from the outside into the same openings in which heated air escapes. The bottom line is that the furnace has to work harder and use more expensive energy to warm the home.Just the opposite is true in summer. The sun can heat the whole surface of the house and it can penetrate those heat loss openings. This means that the air conditioner has to work overtime. Tall, broad deciduous trees, strategically planted between the sun and the house, can reduce the intensity of the sun’s rays so the heat doesn’t penetrate the house as much. That’s why these trees are called shade trees.Planting shrubs beside paved areas like sidewalks and driveways can reduce the pavement temperature from the transpiration of water through their leaves during photosynthesis.Taking all these aesthetic and climatic considerations into consideration when designing a landscape and selecting plants can be a daunting task. Our designers would be happy to take that burden off your shoulders, and now is a good time to get started. The designer can visit your home and check on prevailing winds, sun angles at various times of the day, and snow drift patterns and then have a plan ready for installation first thing in the spring.
Last May, we introduced the concept of integrating edible plants (veggies) into your flower beds. At the time, this was a relatively new concept that was just starting to gain traction. Well, it appears that it didn’t take long to find significant appeal.Each year, the Garden Writers Foundation sponsors research into garden trends for the upcoming year. So hot on the subject of edible gardens were the people who wrote the survey questions that this year’s survey concentrated solely on edible landscapes.The GWF survey found that 58 percent of the respondents plan to grow edible plants in 2015. A quarter of the respondents plan to plant edible plants in the ground, while nine percent (one in 10) plan to use containers and 24 percent plan to use both methods.Forty-four percent of consumers responded that they grew edible plants in 2014. Of these, 38 percent, or 1/3 of them, said they planted edible plants in the ground; 15 percent said that they used containers and 32 percent said they plant in both the ground and containers.A quarter of last year’s respondents didn’t grow edible plants because they simply lost interest in the activity; 18 percent said a lack of success was the reason. “Too much work” was mentioned by 17 percent of respondents, with “took too much time” (14 percent) and “too expensive” (7 percent) rounded out the top five.Of those not planning to grow edible plants in 2015, more than one‐third (37 percent) said it’s because they don’t garden. Nearly one in five Americans (17 percent) reported that they won’t grow plants because they moved to a home where gardening isn’t possible, while 9 percent said it’s too much work.According to respondents, insect and disease control (39 percent) and time (38 percent) are the greatest challenges to edible gardening. Wildlife control was considered to be the greatest challenge by 28 percent of respondents.If you really want to enjoy your own home grown produce this season but are concerned about pests and wildlife or don’t have the time, call us. Let our professionals help you design attractive planting beds that incorporate both traditional landscape plants and edible plants, and then look to us to help you maintain them. You’ll get the satisfaction of improving your family’s quality of life, and get ooohs and ahs from neighbors, without having to do all the work. You do as much or as little of the work as you want.
The answer to the title question is that they often do freeze and break. Have you ever seen cracks running up and down the trunk of a tree? This is caused by the freezing and thawing of water in the outer portions of the trunk. In the tree care industry, these are referred to as frost cracks.Some have compared trees freezing and breaking with plumbing pipes bursting. However, it isn’t the same phenomenon at all. Pipes burst when they are filled with water, which then freezes, expands and causes a weak spot in the pipe to burst. In the case of trees, there are thousands of liquid-carrying “pipes” – the phloem and xylem – and they are more elastic than plastic or metal pipe. Besides, there is less liquid flowing through these vessels when the tree is dormant.Trees are most apt to freeze and break when the temperature plummets before the tree goes completely dormant. Even then, in our area, it is usually only the vessels near the perimeter of the tree, closest to the bark, that are apt to freeze enough to break. Thick bark trees can often prevent the trunk from breaking but thin bark trees don’t have that protection. Consequently, they are the trees that most often split and form frost cracks.Although frost cracked trunks on thin bark trees are most common, weak xylem and phloem vessels anywhere inside a tree can break. But these interior broken vessels don’t affect the bark, and there are so many of these vessels running up and down the trunk that these breaks won’t affect the tree’s health. Also, the sugar in the phloem reduces water’s freezing point.There are a few ways to protect thin bark trees from frost cracks. One is to wrap the trunk with burlap or tree wrap. If you do this, be sure to remove the wrap in the spring. You can also build a wood structure around the trunk. When planting a thin bark tree, it’s a good idea to keep it out of the path of the prevailing wind. Also, a good layer of mulch will help keep the roots warm and, as a result, the liquid that flows in the vessels will be warmer.On the plus side, a frost cracked tree is not in imminent danger of dying. As I said above, there are so many fluid transport vessels that they can take over for those that broke and caused the frost crack.If you have any questions about protecting your trees this winter, we will be happy to answer them.
I’ve written about how to create winter interest in your landscape and, hopefully, you’ve done some of these things. Now that winter is upon us, here are a few more ways in which you can use this winter to plan for next winter.In the spring, add some plants to your garden that have winter interest. Our designers have a whole list of plants that have features that are visible in winter. These features include bark, twigs, berries or even late flowers like witch hazel or early bloomers like hellebores.Some parts of our area are in USDA zone 6 while others are in the colder zone 5. If you live in zone 6, consider planting winter jasmine or heavenly bamboo. This bamboo is non-invasive, so you don’t have to worry about it getting out of hand.Don’t just make a winter garden. Intersperse these plants with your other plants for four season interest. In a new landscape, include plants with winter interest as part of your plant palette.Do you have hydrangeas in your landscape now? Did you cut them back or are the flowers still visible? If you did cut them back, make a note to leave them next year. The flowers will stick up above the snow like oversize snowflakes. If you didn’t get around to cutting them back, you already know how attractive the blooms can be.There you have it. A few ways in which you can add winter interest to your landscape and enjoy a truly four season experience. Every time I see landscape features for every season, I jot them down so I can share them with you when I have enough to fill a page. I hope you enjoy them.
How do you remove snow from your driveway and sidewalks? Shovel? Plow? Blow? Under pavement heating? Every method has an effect on your landscape. None could be considered great for your plant material, but some take a greater toll than others.Shoveling, of course, is the most strenuous. Blowing is time consuming, Under pavement heating is expensive. Plowing is costly, too, in more ways than one, which I’ll explain.Shoveling is fine for young, fit people, but can be a health risk as we age. There’s no choice, however, for removing snow from steps, porches and other small areas. You should also shovel snow from around the base of trees to deter small rodents from burrowing under the snow and feasting on the your trees. I’ve seen mice actually girdle trees, compromising the tree’s vascular system and killing it.Plowing is the only practical snow removal method for our business, but I prefer blowing my driveway. Driveway plowing can cut off edges of the grass if the operator doesn’t aim correctly, and it can be difficult to aim a plow and truck and keep it on course, especially if your driveway bends or curves.Even if they aim properly and don’t cut sod from the edges of the driveway, they may cut it during another common move. Plow operators have to pile snow somewhere, so they often push it into the front yard. The snow pile is usually peppered with small pieces of sod from the edge of the driveway. Worse yet, if you have a tree in the front yard, the plow operator may pile snow up against the trunk, which is my greatest fear. It has all the downsides of a mulch volcano plus it’s usually piled only on one side of the trunk exerting pressure on that side of the tree, which can cause lean or even failure.Blowing allows you to cut nicely defined edges, and you’ll know immediately if you are off the pavement. The pattern in which a blower throws snow is better for your landscape. It tends to scatter rather than pile. Rows formed by blown snow are not as high as piles and are much lighter and less dense.I’ve tried to give you the pros and cons of each removal method. Now, you’ll have to weigh these pros and cons for yourself and decide which method best meets your needs. I’d like to hear your opinion. You can just send a comment below.
Birchcrest Tree & Landscape is ranked 15th on Rochester’s list of Top 100 fastest growing privately owned companies. For that, we thank each of you who put your trust in the 95 professionals who are part of the Birchcrest family. We also thank Rochester Business Alliance and KPMG, LLP for sponsoring this program.To be eligible for this honor, a company must have earned at least $1 million in revenue in each of the three most recent fiscal years.I started this full service tree care, landscaping and lawn care company in 1981. While we enjoyed steady growth from the start, we have enjoyed even greater growth in the last 10 years. This growth culminated in our being eligible for the Top 100 listing this year.I attribute the company’s success to the dedication, education and creativity of our staff. Birchcrest employs 10 ISA Certified Arborists, two ISA Board Certified Master Arborists and eight NYSNLA Certified Nursery & Landscape Professionals.I personally thank you for your business, and look forward to serving even more of you in 2015.
We have received a number of inquiries asking whether chipped up Christmas trees can be used for mulch, and whether the chips can be spread now or whether they have to be aged.The answer to the first question is that they can be used now, as long as the tree was healthy. If you take your tree to a public chipping station, the bag of chips you receive may not be from your tree. However, nearly all Christmas trees come from Christmas tree farms where they are well cared for and are not likely to carry insects and diseases. Most municipalities will use chips that residents don’t take to mulch around public trees. A few may use them only for trails.In answer to the second question, you can use the green chips if you just spread them on top of the soil. If you mix them into the soil, they could pull nutrients from the soil.This conclusion is the result of research by a prominent arboriculture professor who planted a dozen trees. He left four unmulched as a control. He spread fresh chips on the soil surface around another four trees and mixed chips into the soil around the last four. After a year, he found no difference in the soil nitrogen between the surface mulched area and the control trees and only a slight decline in the amount of nitrogen where he had mixed the fresh chips into the soil.If you are concerned about using fresh chips in your own landscape, just mix in some fertilizer before spreading them. This holds true for chips from trees you have had pruned as well as your chipped Christmas tree.The professor’s conclusion was in an article that appeared in two trade magazines several years ago. This professor was one of three prominent research arborists the author spoke to when researching the article. All three of them said that fresh chips would not deplete soil nutrients, and that fertilizer could be mixed in if you doubted these conclusions.
The answer to the title question is that old standby: It depends. At Birchcrest, the fee varies by the size and complexity of the project, and there are several ways to determine a fair amount. Most residential customers pay a design fee that will be applied to the cost of installation. Occasionally, we have billed the design fee as a percentage of the total job or commission on the products and services purchased on your behalf. For the customer who wants to do all or part of the work, we may charge a straight design fee.There are times when customers ask why we charge for our designs when some of our competitors don’t. It’s because we provide finished designs prepared by a professional landscape designer. Those who don’t charge give you a quick sketch on a piece of notepaper or lock you into a contract to use their company for planting and construction.It should be noted that professional designs are copyrighted and that the company that created the design owns the copyright. A landscape designer is the “author” of these creative works, many of which can take a substantial amount of time to complete.Professional companies like Birchcrest never mail a landscape design to a customer. We always make an appointment and present it in person. Our designer will review the plan with you, get your feedback, and then take your comments back to the office and make any modifications.We never leave plans with customers until the design fee has been paid. That’s when we exercise our copyright privilege to assign rights to use the design. It also protects us from those few unscrupulous people who would take our plans and shop them around for the lowest bid. In such cases, inferior plant materials and installation can reflect badly on our company when the customer tells friends that they have a landscape by Birchcrest.If you retain our well trained installation staff, you can proudly, and accurately proclaim that your new landscape is by Birchcrest. You will also have the Peace of Mind of knowing that you have only top quality materials installed by people who are experts at what they do. Best of all, we guarantee the plant material that we install for a full year.
I just looked out the window at my landscape. There’s no doubt about it. Winter is here. As I write this, there’s no snow, although some is in the short term forecast.There’s not a leaf to be seen, except those Mother Nature piled up in a corner of the patio to await my disposal. Sure, there’s tall, tan ornamental grass blowing in the wind. There are plenty of evergreens and even a couple of river birch with exfoliating bark, but what else can I do to make my landscape more interesting this winter?Let’s start with the material at hand. I’m actually a leg up on many landscapes. Ornamental grass is probably the number one material used in local landscapes to add winter interest. It turns brown, is often tufted with seedheads and is tall enough to peer above most snowbanks to vary the color from white. The evergreens are a nice touch, but I don’t recommend planting a whole yard of evergreens or that will be as boring as a sea of snow.Interesting bark on deciduous trees is another nice touch. I chose river birch because it’s not prone to the pests that feast on white and paper birches. You lose some of the color and brightness of the bark (it’s more of a brown color) but it tends to exfoliate more. Other trees with interesting bark include paperbark maple, cherry, sycamore, European hornbeam and shagbark hickory. The bark on these trees is so interesting that you may look forward to fall defoliation so you can enjoy the bark.Oh yes, I have one big holly with its red berries. Hollies are a symbol of Christmas and the winter holidays. Remember, you need separate male and female hollies to produce berries.Putting out squirrel-proof bird feeders will also add color and activity to your winter landscape. Placing holiday lights and other winter interest things on your deck and patio can beat the drabness of winter. Select weather-resistant furniture or garden art for your patio. It may have to be a different set from the summer set you just put away. Perhaps an old set that you didn’t get around to throwing away will work.Finally, containerized winter hardy plants may also add color and interest to your landscape. If some are in terra cotta pots, remember that these pots can break in winter, so wrap them in bubble wrap and pack them in mulch. This is one time when a mulch volcano is OK.See, when you shed the defeatist attitude and replace it with a little creative thinking, you can really make your landscape look quite nice for winter. Granted, it may not be the grand summer garden that you’re used to, but it will be far from winter drab.A number of the ideas proposed above can be done now. Those involving plant materials may have to wait for next season. If so, put your ideas in your garden journal now so you can just look them up in spring rather than racking your brain to remember what you were thinking of six months ago.
Research on ways to eradicate the emerald ash borer (EAB) is beginning to yield some interesting results. We already have effective chemical controls, such as the Tree-Age that we inject into trees. This product is most effective when applied as a preventive before a tree is infected. However, it can also be used as an insecticide with satisfactory results after the EAB has attacked a tree.A recent posting on Entomology Today’s website tell of research into why Asian ash trees are able to fend off attacks while North American trees cannot. Researchers found that the Asian species have a set of genes that are not present in the North American species. Scientists at The Ohio State University have launched a crowd funded project to identify the genes that allow Asian ash trees to resist EAB attacks.Meanwhile, researchers are working on ways to cross breed our North American ash trees with the resistant Asian ash trees. This will give the landscape industry ash trees that are resistant to this pest.This cross breeding technique is also being used among elm tree breeders. They are crossing American elm with foreign species that are resistant to Dutch elm disease (DED). The desired result is a tree that has the unique form of an American elm but is resistant to DED. These breeding programs are yielding mixed results.If the ash cross breeding programs yield good results, we will have ash trees that have the stately appearance of a native species but are resistant to this devastating insect.If the specific Asian gene set can be isolated, it is conceivable that cross breeding could then by replaced by introducing the Asian genes into the native species in the laboratory or nursery where trees are propagated.Successful cross breeding is a number of years off. The first cross bred trees have just been planted. So, there will be a lengthy trial process before they can be released to the nursery industry. I believe isolating the gene set and inoculating these genes into seeds or tissue culture in the laboratory is a really long way off.This means that we still need to be vigilant about continuing to treat the ash trees we already to have to minimize the number attacked by the emerald ash borer, and those that succumb to this pest.
If you are one of our Plant Health Care and/or lawn care customers, you probably received a thick envelope full of all sorts of papers recently. This is your 2015 contract renewal packet.Some people have told us that this looks so intimidating that they just set it aside. If this includes you, please accept our apologies, but every paper in the packet is mandated by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.We have to provide you with all kinds of technical information on every material we are apt to apply, and we need your signature on the contract that is also in the packet before we can provide any Plant Health Care or lawn care services.The benefits of being on a Plant Health Care and/or lawn care program far outweigh the hassle of having to deal with the renewal packet. First and foremost, we have diagnostic responsibility rather than saddling you with it. Our professionals can diagnose problems when they are in their early stages, so we can often treat with less aggressive materials and methods. Second, our service is automatic. You don’t have to call; we visit at the optimum time to take care of each problem.Don’t be intimidated and leave the health of your valuable trees, shrubs, lawn and other plants to your own untrained eye. Take a few minutes and return your signed contract to be sure you don’t miss any essential treatments.
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Illustration courtesy of ArborDay.org[/caption]Surely, you've seen a cross cut wood round. Many of you have probably even cut some. However, have you ever dissected a tree to see the various layers? It’s like peeling an onion.The Arbor Day Foundation has created a descriptive illustration showing the relationship in size, as well as structure, of the various layers. The dissection begins at the outside and works its way into the interior.The outer bark is the tree's outermost layer, which helps keep out moisture in the rain and prevents the tree from losing moisture when the air is dry. It also insulates against cold and heat and wards off insects and diseases. Its job is to protect the tree. As we continue our trip through a tree, you’ll see how the bark is constantly renewed from within.The next layer is the inner bark. This layer has tiny tubes in which “phloem” is circulated. Phloem carries the food, manufactured by photosynthesis, throughout the tree. Inner bark lives for only a short time. Then it dies, turns to cork and becomes part of the protective outer bark.The cambium layer is the growing part of the trunk. Each year, it produces new bark and new wood in response to hormones that pass down through the phloem from the leaves and stimulate growth in cells.Sapwood is the trunk’s next layer. It’s new wood, and like the inner layer with its food carrying vascular system, the sapwood has similar tubes, called xylem, through which water and nutrients move from the roots up to the leaves. As newer rings of sapwood are laid down, inner cells lose their vitality and turn to heartwood, creating a new annual ring.Heartwood is the central, supporting pillar of a tree. Although dead, it will not decay or lose strength while the outer layers are intact. It’s comprised of cellulose fibers bound together by a chemical glue called lignin, which makes it stronger than steel. The Arbor Day Foundation says that a cross section of wood 12” long and 1” by 2” set vertically can support a weight of twenty tons!Leaves make food for the tree, and their shape influences their food making ability. For example, the narrow needles of a Douglas fir can expose as much as three acres of chlorophyll surface to the sun.The lobes, leaflets and jagged edges of many broad leaves have their uses, too. They help evaporate the water used in food-building, reduce wind resistance and even provide “drip tips” to shed rain that, left standing, could decay the leaf.So, you can see, trees are very unique and complex organisms, worthy of the care they require to maintain their majestic beauty.
Although we've enjoyed a relatively nice fall after a less than perfect summer, the lower temperatures are a sure indicator that winter is on the way. Some forecasters are predicting a repeat of last winter while others are convinced that this will be a mild El Nino winter. Will your landscape plants be prepared for whatever Mother Nature heaps upon them?Here are five steps for protecting plants from damage and costly repair:
You have a major investment in your landscape. Don’t let the weather wash out or blow that investment away.http://www.birchcrestlandscape.com
If you have a wood burning fireplace or heat with a wood burning stove, how’s your firewood supply? If it’s low and you’re shopping for a firewood supplier, these tips are for you.The first tip is to buy locally. Regular readers know that I firmly believe that buying locally is best, especially for plants. But, when it comes to firewood, I’m even more adamant. And, I’m backed up by the law on this one.In New York State, it’s against the law to transport untreated firewood more than 50 miles from its source or import it into the state. Also, firewood sellers are required to provide you with source documentation for the firewood they sell. This is to minimize the migration of deadly, invasive insects like the emerald ash borer and Asian longhorned beetle.Even with the law in place, I’ve seen truck and trailer loads of ash wood going down the street. However, I urge you to obey the law, especially if you have ash trees in your yard.Treated wood is defined as having been heated to 160ºF for 75 minutes. It can then be labeled as "New York Approved Treated Firewood/Pest-Free" by the producer. Even if you cut and transport your own firewood, you cannot legally transport it more than 50 miles or bring it into the state without a “Self Issued Certificate of Origin,” which can be downloaded at http://www.dec.ny.gov/docs/lands_forests_pdf/selfisscert.pdf.A second tip is to be sure you know how much wood you’re buying. While we usually see ads for face cords, that’s not a legal measure. Your receipt or bill of sale needs to list the fraction of a cord you bought. A cord, which is 8 feet wide by 4 feet high by 4 feet deep, is a legal measure. A face cord that is 12 inches deep is a quarter cord, and that’s the way it needs to be sold.A third tip is to be sure the wood is seasoned and, preferably, hardwood. Green wood doesn’t burn well due to its high water content. Green wood is tan in color, while seasoned wood is more of a gray color. Hard wood is preferred because soft woods have more resins and impurities like creosote that can adhere to your chimney walls and start a fire.That old rule of thumb that says if a deal looks too good to be true it probably is applies to firewood. Unlike many such deals, however, buying undocumented firewood can result in legal problems as well as an insect invasion of your valuable, standing trees.
When you first moved into your home, you planted a tree just inside your property line. So, it’s your tree, right? Maybe. It depends on how much it has grown and whether any of the trunk is now in your neighbor’s yard.In most cases, a tree positioned on a property line is considered common property. As such, it’s owned by both property owners. This usually means that the tree cannot be pruned, destroyed or altered without both owners agreeing to the changes. Sometimes this requires them to have a written agreement on the terms of care for the tree.According to a book, entitled Arboriculture and the Law, published by the International Society of Arboriculture and written by lawyers Victor Merullo and Michael Valentine, the courts apply this joint ownership principal even when a tree begins life on one person’s property and grows on to another. So, if it started out as your tree, you are forced to share the decisions and cost of care with your neighbor. If it started out as your neighbor’s tree, you may be the unwitting co-owner. Of course, you and your neighbor could agree, preferably in writing, that the person who planted the tree will be solely responsible for its care.Even if you are the sole owner and caregiver of a tree, you have certain responsibilities to your neighbor, and your neighbor has certain rights. In the eyes of the law, you’re responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of that tree. For example, you could be found negligent for failure to prune trees that are blocking visibility from streets, driveways and sidewalks. You’re also responsible for tending to any trees that could cause harm to a neighbor’s home or person.If the branches and/or roots of your tree grow into your neighbor’s yard, he has the right to remove those portions of the tree extending on to his property. Such intrusions can cause damage to sidewalks, driveways, garages, rooftops, and sewage and drainage pipes.In Arboriculture and the Law, Merullo and Valentine wrote that courts, in most cases, have decided in favor of a neighbor being able to remove portions of trees that may not be planted on their property but have limbs or roots that reach across property lines. Courts have determined that a landowner owns all the space above and below his property, and if something invades either of those areas, it is his right to remove it. However, he doesn't have the right to do anything to the tree that would weaken or kill it.You can’t simply plead ignorance to the condition of trees on your property to escape liability in the case of tree failure. An act of God occurs as a result of “totally natural causes, which could not be prevented against by the actions of any particular individual.” If you could have prevented the damage through regular checks and maintenance of a tree on your property, it is not an act of God and you could be held liable.One of our 10 Certified Arborists should be your go-to person for tree-related matters. We recommend a hazard assessment to determine if a risk is present. After damage has occurred, our Certified Arborist should be called upon to assess your financial loss, including the cost of removal and repair, for insurance, tax or legal purposes. Our Certified Arborist can also handle repair or replacement.Finally, we recommend that you document your landscaping investment to help establish its worth. Take photos of your trees and plants so you have before and after examples should you need to establish value.
Do you keep a garden or plant diary as I suggested in a previous blog? Do you know which plants in your landscape are too tender to survive the winter?If you’ve been keeping a diary, you probably have a list of plants that need extra protection. If you just started keeping one, this will be your baseline year when you will enter in spring those plants that fared well and those that didn’t fare so well.Different plants have different needs. That’s why you have to track their progress with a diary. Some may appear tender but will survive well under a blanket of snow. However, we may have some very cold weather without a blanket of snow.Many plants can be protected by adding an extra layer of mulch for the winter. You can apply up to four inches, but be prepared to remove one or two inches in the spring.Many tender trees, especially young trees that you just planted this year, may need a burlap coat. Just drive poles into the ground around the perimeter of the tree, wrap with burlap and staple it to the poles. Be sure to keep the top open to moisture and sunlight. Usually, evergreens need wrapping since they continue their life functions in winter, albeit at a slower pace. Wrapping may also be needed for both evergreen and deciduous trees planted close to the road to protect them from road salt spray.Individual or groups of plants can be covered with a breathable, transparent or semi-transparent landscape fabric. The fabric just needs to be held away from the leaves and stems with stakes. You can also buy small hoop houses and garden covers at garden centers and online.Especially sensitive plants should be dug up, replanted in nursery pots and put in a cold frame. Cold frames can be built out of wood and glass, or you can buy them at garden centers or online. Some are rigid and others are more flexible. Mine is like a tent. It’s plastic on a metal frame. There are zippered panels in front and back to let in air and bigger zippered panels for tending to the plants. It folds up for the summer and in winter is just spread into an “A” frame and staked in the ground with tent pegs.If you use either a fabric covering or a cold frame, plan to water the plants whenever the temperature gets above freezing for a few days.Really sensitive plants like succulents should be taken inside for the winter. If you’re shaking your head and wondering where you’ll find the room, you’re not alone. Hardy plants, like yuccas, can be left outside in a sheltered spot, brought indoors or put in a cold frame.If you have tender plants, you won’t have to wonder what to do with your green thumb all winter. You’ll be following the suggestions above and tending to your tender plants. Good luck.
