Tree Care News from Experienced Certified Arborists

Thoughts from an experienced arborist: Working with trees is certainly a rewarding endeavor. However, really what makes it so rewarding is working with the people who care for their trees. I could say I am in the tree business, but in reality I am in the people business, we all are.

The role evergreens play in the landscape has always been a prominent one. Their beauty often frames the remainder of the landscape, home, prominent features, or are some of the prominent features themselves.

Charlie Brown helps us all fall in love with a thin and weakened evergreen tree during the annual holiday special “A Charlie Brown Christmas”. However, most of our client’s would prefer their own evergreen trees retain their needles for a thick canopy.

Birch are highly coveted trees known for their extremely ornamental bark, pretty fall color, and fine textured growth habit. They have been important trees in folklore, useful for woodworking, and utilized in the cosmetic and pharmaceutical products.

Most trees and shrubs should have an even green color when healthy. Some exceptions to this rule are varieties whose foliage may have another color (e.g. yellow, reddish) or be variegated (multi-colored leaves). But if your tree is supposed to be green and isn’t, it may be suffer

It was the winter of 2002 and I was a bright-eyed college graduate looking for a job to start paying off my student loans. My lifelong friend gave me a call one weekend and told me that a company in South Eastern Wisconsin that was hiring if I was still looking. That company ended up being Wachtel Tree Science.

ZPM is short for Zimmerman Pine Moth, which is a serious pest of many species of pine trees. Austrian and Scots pines are the most commonly affected species in our area.

No individual species takes this saying to heart quite as literally as the Crabapple.  Numerous cultivars are readily available and viable for our landscapes.  A quick check of a local nursery inventory revealed 39 possible options.

I think of an I.V. (intravenous) treatment as a way to get necessary nutrients and medication into a person for faster results. This can also be done with trees for certain issues and at certain times of the year.

I am often asked this question in early spring, when the sunshine has returned and animals, birds, and people have rustled from winter hibernation: “When is the best time to prune my trees?

As an arborist I certainly get to see many interesting properties and some spectacular trees. But, it’s not always the trees that are the most interesting part of my day.

I love to use analogies when explaining my tree care recommendations. I will often see client's give an "OK I get it" expression when they understand the analogy, and how it pertains to their tree.