Spring 2015 Newsletter

Spring Flowering Trees

Lilac flowers (left) and Kwanzen Cherry Trees (right)

Photos courtesy of Missouri Botanical Garden

Spring flowering trees can be counted on to bloom again each year, providing new memories for your children and grandchildren.

In March and April snowbells, crocus, daffodils, and other spring bulbs are a welcome sight because they bring early colors, declaring that winter is over and soon trees and shrubs will leaf out. Most of the showy, spring-flowering trees are smaller than Oaks and Maples, and other hardwood trees.

Each of us has a favorite flowering tree. Perhaps it’s a special childhood memory of the Weeping Cherry in the back yard that bloomed in early April and would cover the lawn with a light pink carpet for two weeks thereafter.

Or perhaps your grandmother had a lovely old Lilac tree at the side of the house, that each May produced its lavender flower candles which gave off

a sweet fragrance that wafted up to her second-floor bedroom window.

Spring flowering trees can be counted on to bloom again each year, providing new memories for your children and grandchildren.

Magnolias, Redbuds, and Crabapples are the earliest bloomers and each are spectacular in their own way. Do woods, Cherries, Pears, Hawthorns and Plums soon follow.

In a perfect world you might plant every one of them on your property and have white, yellow, pink, red and purple flowers at different times from mid-March through June.

Why not call us now, so one of our Arborists can recommend which of these trees you might add this year.

President’s
Message

We look forward to working with you in the coming year. There is much we can do to make your landscape everything what you want it to be, whether it’s caring for your trees and shrubs, your gardens and lawn, or adding a new feature to your property.

2014 was the world’s warmest year on record. Since 2001, Philadelphia’s average temperature has risen two degrees above the average temperature during the 20th Century.

Rising temperatures bring new and more plant diseases.

Plant health care remains the core of our business, whether it’s regular tree pruning and monitoring your trees, or protecting them when a new pest or disease is detected. It’s important that we continue your plant health care program.

This newsletter has run numerous articles, alerting you to Emerald Ash Borer (or EAB). Still, I need to remind you once again that EAB already has been detected in 55 of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties, including Bucks and Montgomery Counties. Plant scientists in the U.S. Forest Service predict that 99 percent of all ash trees in North America are probably going to die in the future. (NY Times, June 30, 2014)

Continued on Page 2

Choosing a tree Replacement

Diversity – You will want to ensure diversity in your landscape. If you have only one type of tree on your property, you have what is known as a monoculture, which means you could lose all your trees, should they succumb to an infestation or disease.

Tree Behavior & Characteristics – Important factors to consider when choosing a new tree include: Size at maturity, shallow or deep roots, resistance to insects and disease, tree vigor, fast or slow growing. Aesthetic qualities, such as unusual bark texture or spring and fall color, may be important too.

President’s
Message

Continued from Page 1

Although EAB hasn’t yet been detected on any of the properties we manage, you can be sure that day will come unless you take precautions. Many of you have begun having us treat your ash trees, and we should continue those treatments every other year. If you have an ash tree, or trees, you want protected, please contact us.

In 2014 we did more landscape construction projects, building arbors and various hardscapes, such as brick and cobblestone sidewalks, patios, and walls with Wissahickon-schist stone.

It’s projects like these that enable you to experience more fully your property. With the upturn in the economy, we look forward to more of this work in 2015.

— Peter McFarland

Excellent Tree Replacements

Losing an older tree due to decay, disease or severe storm damage is always unwelcome, not only because of it being part of you and your property but also the shade it provided for your patio or house. Should you be faced with this situation, you will want to select a replacement.

Trees are best planted in the Spring. Bare-root trees in the early Spring.

Here are three excellent, deciduous shade trees, which we highly recommend: White Oak, Sugar Maple, and American Sycamore.

Each will grow straight and tall with strong branches, less prone than spindlier specimens to break under stress from wind or ice. Properly placed, they will keep your home cooler in summer and warmer in winter, reducing your utility bills.

Each are native to the Eastern United States. Native, or indigenous, trees adjust better to temperatures, rainfall levels, and nutrient requirements. They are also less susceptible to disease and harmful insects.

Absent storm damage, these three trees should live 100 years, or more.

Sugar Maple

Height at maturity 40-80 feet. Spread at maturity 30-60 feet in a dense rounded crown. Sugar maples have dark green, lobed leaves, and will tolerate poor soils. Fall leaf colors of yellow, orange and scarlet are spectacular.

Commercial maple sugar is produced from Acer saccharum by tapping into the trunk of the tree and draining the sap which is boiled down into what we put on our pancakes.

We especially like the ‘Green Mountain’ variety of the Sugar Maple. It develops a dense symmetrical oval crown, which ultimately reaches 60 feet in height and a width up to 40 feet

White Oak

Height at maturity 50-80 feet, up to 100 feet. Spread at maturity 50-80 feet in a broad rounded crown. Adapts to all soil conditions and has good drought tolerance. Fruit is an oval acorn, three-quarter inch in size.

American Sycamore (Platanus occidentalis)

White Oak (Quercus alba)

Sugar Maple (Acer saccharum)

Of all the native hardwood trees, White Oaks are the hardiest because they are least likely to succumb to insect and disease problems.

American Sycamore

Height at maturity 75-100 feet, sometimes higher. Spread at maturity 75-100 feet, with horizontal branching, which make it perhaps the most massive indigenous tree among our hardwoods. Grows easily in wet, welldrained soils, and generally tolerant of most urban pollutants.

Distinctive for its brown bark, which exfoliates in summer exposing a stunning white inner bark, easily visible from a distance. The flower grows into a fruit ball, which remains on the tree until winter.

Community Service

During our many years in business we have donated our skills, knowledge and equipment for a day of service at various historic gardens, parks or green spaces in and around Philadelphia.

Last November, one of our crews worked all day in Washington Square Park, located in Center City Philadelphia. They custom-pruned the shrubs in 15 garden beds, including the Hydrangeas, Viburnums, and Hollies.

We view these days of service as a way of sharing our expertise with the community we serve, and we particularly savor working in the many historic green spaces in and around Philadelphia because of their mature trees and other unique features.

Washington Square is one of the five original public squares set aside in William Penn’s plan for “a green country town.” This park includes a stately Sycamore tree which is around 150 years old.

The McFarland team custom-pruned 15 garden beds at Washington Square Park in November.

Ask The Gardener

When to Prune Shrubs

Gardeners (even experienced ones) sometimes need to keep in mind when to prune shrubs so as not to remove their flower buds.

When pruning a particular shrub, it’s important to know whether its flowers are produced on the old wood (stems or branches), or on the new stems and branches.

Pruning shrubs which produce buds on old wood while the shrub is dormant will reduce the flowers. Shrubs which produce buds on new wood should be pruned in fall or over winter.

Listed here are the best seasons to prune eight shrubs common around Philadelphia. So pick up your hand pruners and get to work, or let us do the pruning.

If you want more information on best times to prune other shrubs, or have other gardening questions, please e-mail “Ask the Gardener” (mcfarland@mcfarland tree.com), or ask your Arborist the next time he visits your property, and we will provide you with an answer.

Shrub	Best times of year to prune	Flower buds form on
Azalea	summer after blooming	old wood
Crape Myrtle	winter or spring	new wood
Forsythia	spring or summer after blooming	old wood
Holly (evergreen)	summer or fall	old wood
Holly (summer blooming)	fall or winter	new wood
Lilac	summer after blooming	old wood
Rhodedendron	summer after blooming	old wood
Viburnum (deciduous)	summer after blooming, or fall	old wood

Spring Alert

Gardeners (even experienced ones)sometimes need to keep in mindwhen to prune shrubs so as not to removetheir flower buds. When pruninga particular shrub, it’s important toknow whether its flowers are producedon the old wood (stems or branches),or on the new stems and branches.

Pruning shrubs which produce buds on old wood while the shrub is dormant will reduce the flowers. Shrubs which produce buds on new wood should be pruned in fall or over winter.

Listed here are the best seasons to prune eight shrubs common around Philadelphia. So pick up your hand

pruners and get to work, or let us do the pruning.

If you want more information on best times to prune other shrubs, or

have other gardening questions, please e-mail “Ask the Gardener” (mcfarland@mcfarlandtree.com), or ask your Arborist the next time he visits your property, and we will provide you with an answer.

However, trees that become heavily defoliated for consecutive years are more likely to become susceptible to Emerald Ash Borer.

We recommend ongoing monitoring of your ash trees every year, and pruning all dead or dying branches.

For your specimen ash trees, we recommend a fungicide application, which will control ash yellows.

Newsletter Editor: Bill Hengst