Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Oh with John Butcher from Medison Tree Care and Landscape
and Ron Rothis from the Arbor Doctor, and now we're
joined by Chris Stone from Boom County Arboretum. But I
do before we get back to Chris, I do want
to John to finish a point he wanted to make
as we were finishing.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
The last segment.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
I just wanted to emphasize the importance of watering trees
in a drought scenario. Everybody thinks about the lawn and
how much the lawn needs water, and they're paying attention
to the lawn. Grass can be replaced. Lawns are really resilient.
They can go dormant and actually come back. When you're
thirty fifty year old tree dies, there is no replacing
(00:40):
that immediately. And evergreens are particularly susceptible. Norway spruce, Western arbravity,
Eastern arbravity. Those really show it the next spring when
we have a bad drought, and there's a lot of
those that are dead this spring from the droughts last year.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
But also your.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Big legacy trees, your oaks, the ones that you never
think about that need water, maybe aren't going to die,
but if you soak them really deep once every couple
of weeks in a bad drought scenario. To me, that's
water much better spent than trying to trying to keep
the lawn green all year.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Yeah, it's really easy to take big trees for granted,
you kind of look past them and you see your
lawn is brown, and that seems alarming, but it really
isn't that big a deal. But your trees may look
perfectly green, but they're stressing, and that is a big deal.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Yep, yep. Well, let's welcome.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Christine on the line, director of Boone County Arboretum and
good friend of mine and.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Just a great tree expert. Chris, Welcome, good morning.
Speaker 4 (01:42):
How are you guys doing.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
We're all fine so far. Somebody's going to get their
feelings hurt before too long, but so far, so good.
It might be you, It might be you. What's going
on at Boone County Arboretum these days?
Speaker 4 (02:01):
Oh, lots of events, of course in the spring season,
so we're always doing that. But we're planting lots of
trial plants in our trial gardens. Just got our annuals installed,
so all that spring chaos is has been well in
our way. Yeah, and we're of course planting new trees
and things that we're talking about.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
Already this morning, so we'll dig deep into that.
Speaker 4 (02:20):
I just add that we yeah, I would add that
we watch the lawns. If the lawns starts to stop
growing or turns a little bit brown. The trees need
water too, so very good tag that into t John's comments.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Uh, we you know we have three well, I'll even
call myself an expert. We have four good tree people
here together today and we want to answer your questions.
So feel free to call in eight hundred eight three
eighty two fifty five. Any kind of question you got
about trees. Will either have a great answer for you
(02:55):
or we won't. But probably we will, and we won't fudget.
If we don't know the answer, we'll let you know.
So please call in. We've got the people here that
can help you out. So until those folks start calling in,
what are some curt questions?
Speaker 5 (03:13):
What's that phone number?
Speaker 1 (03:14):
Scott eight hundred eight two three eight two five five
eight hundred eight two three eighty two fifty five.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
There you go. Yes, current issues. You guys are out
in the field.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
You're seeing you're getting calls from people saying, hey, what's
going wrong here? Or what's wrong there? What are some
of the issues you guys are seeing right now out
in the field.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
You know one that's really common that's been coming up
a lot, or southern magnolia's right now just look pretty
bad overall. And what's happening is not necessarily a disease problem.
But they're you know, the old leaves from last year,
they're bulch off, yeah, and the new ones haven't come
out yet, and a lot of them just look really
(03:55):
really weak. And and if you look really closely, the
stems are green, there's new buds are starting to pop.
Just give it a little patience. It's been a cool,
slow spring, which I'm actually thoroughly enjoying, and I feel
like it's been one of the nicest working springs that
that I can remember in a long time. But but
these southern plants really haven't started to pop yet, and
(04:17):
I think just giving a little patience to those would
would go a long way.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
I love that tree.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
It's it's a beautiful broad leaf evergreen that works really
well in our landscapes.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
But the one downside.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
Is it it's two or three weeks of looking bad
or when everything else looks good, So it kind of
you know, it can bring down your landscape just a
slight bit, you know, and this time of.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
Year worth using regardless of that, absolutely. And the other
downside to that plant would be the you know, the
kind of constant leaf litter where they're dropping leaves throughout
a lot of the season. So if you have a pool,
maybe it's not the perfect plant right next to your deck,
but tons of great places to use.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
Super satisfying to run over with them or they just
chat right.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
Up, Yes, sod and picking out some of the cultivars
that are a little more cold hardy goes along with
part for our area and.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
North, I think zone six B is about as far
six A is probably about as far north as you
can get. And if you're getting in the northern edges,
you probably want to protect them from wind. Right, Yeah,
but Ded Blanchard, Brackens.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
Brown, Rackens Brown, Edith Bogue.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Edith Bogue, Chris you you know of some a few
other northern hardy types, right.
Speaker 4 (05:37):
The other's the local spring Grove Selections. Yeah, has a
number attached to it. I never can't remember the number.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Sixteen.
Speaker 4 (05:44):
Hey, that's coming on the sixteen, Yes, coming on the market.
That's a really good local selection. There are a couple
from central Illinois to that are worth looking into. I
think it's called twenty four below might be one of.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Those, that's right.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
I've heard about that one maybe being hardy to even Chicago.
That gets, you know, kind of I question that, but
I've heard that mentioned. So who knows, Roan, what are
you seeing out there when when you get called well.
Speaker 5 (06:11):
I was just going to say on the southern Magnoia,
I mean, a neat thing about that tree is it?
It does adapt to a lot of different soils. It's
pretty easy to grow. So for the average homeowner, it's
not one of these plants that needs to be babied
or anything like that. It's really it's it's really nice
for that regard. The things that I'm seeing really are
(06:34):
things that a lot of them are just long term things.
I always see where trees are not being planted correctly,
you know, things like that not being prune correctly.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
That that's a big one.
Speaker 5 (06:50):
I mean, really the biggest issue, the biggest two issues
really that that have been ongoing is neil cast disease
on blue.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
Spruce, which is you know, just hard to find a
blue spruce around here anymore.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
Yeah, pretty much.
Speaker 5 (07:05):
So we have a decent number of them out there,
and I still get calls about them, you know, what's
wrong with it? And it's like, well, the same thing
has been wrong with them for years. And then the
box tree moth, the insect that's attacking boxwood shrubs. There's
a tree show, so it's called the box tree moth,
but we don't know it's in Europe where they grow
(07:26):
them as trees, and I don't know I might grow
them as trees somewhere in the United States. I'm not sure.
I've seen hardly any of those. But but you know
that will devour a boxwood.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
Very quickly, Yeah, very quickly. Looks like we have a caller.
Let's go go ahead and take their question. Okay, never
mind that, we'll get back to them. But yeah, I
think we'll talk about the box tree moth in more
depth a little bit later in the show, because it's
a pretty big subject.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
Going back to the.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
Southern magnolias, you were mentioning how tough they are inadaptable.
Since an zoo and botanical garden, we use them a
lot for a tropical look for exhibits and also for
screening so they often get used, smashed in with a
bunch of other plants, and and you know, I've learned
that they can take really dry conditions, a lot of
(08:17):
root competition in deep shade and still perform pretty well.
We do have that caller now, it's Maria from Cincinnati. Maria,
what's your question?
Speaker 2 (08:26):
Marla? Marla?
Speaker 6 (08:27):
Sorry, I have a question about my most hated tree atlantis.
We had two cut down and now their babies are
all over my lawn. Do I dig them up or
do ICE spray them?
Speaker 2 (08:42):
Spray them?
Speaker 1 (08:43):
I girdled three big alanthis in the woods at a
client's house long ago, and it was like a like
the floor, the forest floor became fern heaven with little
lanthis root suckers. And those are root suckers. They're not
really ceilings. A few might be ceilings, but they're all
(09:04):
connected to that old root system and the only way
to knock them down is repeated springs. With repeating springs,
you guys have any different opinion on that.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
Sometimes you can cut them down and you can do
it and grind the stump out and you don't have
that happen. And other times you cut it one down
and the roots just go crazy. And I don't know
the rhyme or reason on when that takes place, but
there is a forestry trick where they say, if you
and this is too late for her, but for people
in general, where if you cut the tree first and
(09:38):
you apply the proper chemical around the base and actually
kill it, and then you have a removal scheduled later,
the odds of those roots taking over later are much less.
And that's you know, there's a lot of foresight in that,
and it's not a guarantee that you'll even have the
root issue, but that is a way to minimize that
risk for other people in the future. A mowing regiment.
(10:00):
We will eventually wear out those suckers that she's talking about,
but if they're not all on the lawn or in
an easy to access place. I do think that that
chemical treatments probably your only bet.
Speaker 6 (10:12):
Regular strengths or a particular chemical, you know, I.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
Would I would go with glycossate, which you want to
look at the bottle and make sure you've got the
real thing. With glacis con that's the best kind. Yeah,
and I think probably start with three percent. You can
look online and see if if alanthus is listed for
a higher percentage or not, but you know it might
(10:40):
be on the label that way.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
I'm not sure, but.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
I would start with unless you see online or on
the label that it you know a certain percentage is
recommended for Tree of Heaven, then just go ahead and
start with three percent.
Speaker 5 (10:54):
You can you can if you go to individual sprouts
that are coming up and cut those off and just
dab on about a fifty percent solution onto that cut,
that that can.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
Help.
Speaker 5 (11:09):
I mean, I don't know there's much of anything that's
going to completely eliminate it at one one shot.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
That might work if you have relatively few suckers coming up,
but you know, what I had, what I experienced in
this in this way was in the woods, but it
was thousands.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (11:27):
Yeah, well they're in our woods too, but yeah, it's
beyond me and not not all my property.
Speaker 5 (11:35):
I would lean toward the heavier. When we get the
the the label, it'll have different percentages, and I would
go with one of the heavier percentages, like even six
or eight percent, because you're dealing with not just a
little sprout and there's only so many leaves to absorb that,
but you're dealing with an extensive basically tree root system.
(11:59):
You know the same things kind of true with poison ivy.
I mean you're dealing with a more extensive what he plante.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
We need to go to break Thanks for your call,
Marlotte Hotels helpful. You certainly welcome, and when we come back,
we'll talk with Matthew. You're listening to Let's Guard with
Scott Berline. We'll be back in just a couple of
vis You're listening to Let's Guard with Scott Berlin. I'm
here with John Butcher from Madison Tree Care and Landscape
and Ron rothis from the arbor Doctor. And also with
(12:25):
this is Christine from Boone County Arboretum. This is a
day focused on trees, all kinds of tree topics and things,
and we've got Matthew on the line.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
Matthew, what is your question?
Speaker 7 (12:38):
Good morning? Yes, not exactly a tree question, but how
about a spice bush question?
Speaker 2 (12:43):
Will fall in the radar, Yes it would, Okay.
Speaker 7 (12:47):
I have a couple of spice bushes and it looks
like they've have lindor emavirus. They got the coloradic modeling
of the leaves and also the leaves are crinkling up
and Mike, question is what is the long term prognosis
prognosis on this as far as being a virus? Should
I cut these bushes down? Or how should I approach it?
Speaker 2 (13:11):
UH?
Speaker 1 (13:12):
The call on Chris for this one. Chris, do you
have any thoughts on this one?
Speaker 4 (13:17):
I have unfortunately not had a chance to deal with that.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
I do fortunately not well.
Speaker 4 (13:25):
Fortunately, fortunately fortunately we haven't had a chance to deal
with that. But unfortunately I don't know the answer is
the answer?
Speaker 5 (13:34):
Yeah, I can't say that I've specifically dealt with it,
but generally with a virus, you're not going to have
any type of actual treatment right for that. So if
it's something that UH is making these plants so it's
not viable anymore, I would think removal is about the
only the only way you can go.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
How sure of the diagnosis are you, Matthew.
Speaker 7 (14:00):
Well, I'd say, well, as far as what I can
see online, everything I've seen that I've seen on the
plant corresponds to what I've it's indicated people have diagnosed
online for it.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
How many how many spice tied.
Speaker 7 (14:20):
Down at all? I mean, it started maybe about a
year ago and it's starting to come back this as
the weather warms up and it hasn't killed the tree yet.
I mean it just kind of has all these the
leaves that look like the chlorodic medaling and the shrinkage crinkling,
(14:41):
and just kind of wondering the long term, Uh should
I kill cut down or even if I cut it down, well,
the can I plant another spice bush in that area?
Or does a spice or does the virus uh remain
in the soil?
Speaker 3 (14:59):
What what I was the to ask us, how many
spice bush do you have in that area? Is it
just this one plant?
Speaker 2 (15:04):
There's three?
Speaker 3 (15:05):
So, like, is it in all three of them are
showing these symptoms?
Speaker 2 (15:10):
Okay?
Speaker 3 (15:11):
Yeah, so like this is without me knowing any specific
thing to this particular disease on this plant. But I
would ride it out through this season, cut them all
back really hard, maybe even to the ground next year,
let them flush back out, see what they do, and
if you know, if they make it, they make it.
(15:32):
If not, I would I would for sure put something
else back in there.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
The rule is not to replace something that died with
the same thing.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
Yeah, right, sight, Chris, what I was afraid of.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (15:46):
I would also recommend that you take samples to your
local Extension office to have those. Yeah, you're not doing
something that you don't need to do.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
Okay, well, thank you, Matthew. We'll move on to Martha
and Lexington with her question. Ope, she's not.
Speaker 8 (16:02):
There, Good morning, I'm here.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
Okay, Yeah, go ahead.
Speaker 8 (16:07):
I've got a southern magnolia that was affected by some
of the cold that came through the last cold snap,
not the ice, but the other one, and about the
top third to half has completely the leaves are completely dead.
It's the leathery kind of lead, right, they're completely dead.
(16:29):
When I do the thumbnail test, I still see some
green in the branches. Is this gonna come back?
Speaker 2 (16:37):
Well, you just have a minute to answer that question, John,
I would.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
Absolutely say if you do the scratch test and it's
still green, to give it some more time. It's still
early for southern magnolias. They haven't come out all the way.
If you give it another month and it's still not
coming out and it should start scratching brown, eventually, you
can cut that back to where it's viable. Those plants
handle pruning really really well, and we'll regenerate if you
(17:02):
cut them back hard.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
Hope that helps Martha. We need to go to break.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
You're listening to Let's Garden with Scott Berlin again. The
podcasts are available on all the best sources of podcasts.
We're taking your calls today eight hundred eighty two three
eighty two fifty five. We'll be back in just a
couple of minutes with more on trees. If you want
to talk to our honorable celebrated panel of experts on
(17:31):
trees today, give us a call. We will answer your
questions or try to Were we going to finish a
point or did we determine? No, we've we've we were
looked on the spice bush question and we came up.
We looked into it a little bit and found that
we answered it pretty well.
Speaker 3 (17:48):
I do think Chris's point was the best though about
using your local extension for a test. I really really
thought that he nailed it with that part.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
Yeah, and that's a great way to get an absolute diagnosis.
And then extension. They diagnose so many things that they know.
They tend to know the proper action to take, you know,
pretty much off hand. So not that you guys don't
you guys are great.
Speaker 3 (18:12):
Well, there's there's a visual test can can give us
a lot and you don't need a lab test for everything,
but there are some things that where you just need
to culture that right disease out and you just there's
some things you can't confirm with Sometimes.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
They find the completely unexpected too, or a secondary cause
and that kind of thing.
Speaker 5 (18:32):
I was talking to my my physician once we got
into the the subject of diagnostics and diagnostic testing, and
she said that ninety of the lab tests that they
do are confirmational, just to confirm what they think is
actually going on, but they want to make sure that
they've got the right diagnosis.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
It's a lot like what a doctor in medicine would do.
You know, she was a doctor in medicine.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
Oh, well, there you go. I maybe I wasn't listen.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
I've faded out for a minute. We have Carroll on
the line from Villa Hills, Kentucky. Carrol, how are you.
Speaker 9 (19:08):
Oh, I'm good, Thank you, Good morning, gentlemen. My question
is on my very large pinoak tree. It's about i'd
say sixty feet high or so. It's the sort of
gem of my landscape. But it's been struck by lightning
twice in the last two years or three years, and
the first strike wasn't too too bad and it was
healing over nicely. The second strike did a really bad
(19:30):
number on it, all the way from the branches down
into the roots. This year it only leafed out about
one quarter of the entire tree, and some of the
leafs the branches that did leave out now are dying.
Am my toast on this tree? Or do you think
if I share it back and try and rejuvenate it
(19:54):
that it will come back out again?
Speaker 3 (19:56):
Go ahead, John Well, I mean, I think that the
odds of this ever becoming a grand old tree the
way that we think of it now are very low.
Depending on your taste for patience and spending money. There
is a possibility that you could do a full retrenchment
pruning on this and cut it way back, much harder
(20:17):
than we would recommend for any traditional arboricultural standards, but
that that could sprout back out from the trunk and
the base and give some a piece of that tree
as a legacy. But it's never going to be the
tree the way that you think of it again.
Speaker 9 (20:32):
Okay, Okay, i's afraid of but I've been wanted to
check before I take it out.
Speaker 3 (20:37):
I think I think it's probably safe to take that
one out based on what you're saying.
Speaker 9 (20:41):
Okay, well, thank you very much for your opinions. I
appreciate so much.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
Certainly welcome Carol Bill from Cincinnati. What can we do
for you?
Speaker 10 (20:51):
Well, I've tried to transplan from the wild Sasa press
and no luck. Right, because it's somewhat of a cold
colony type tree.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
Yeah, it's because you know, it's it's connected to probably
twelve other sassafras in the area, or at least certainly
a mother tree, and you practically, for practical purposes, you
cannot get enough root system to support the transplant.
Speaker 10 (21:22):
I tried root print punting and leaving them alone for
a year, and everything's fine. Until I dig it up.
It ain't gonna move. So you're saying I should order
one from a nursery.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
Well, Christmas jumping in, Chris, what are your your thoughts?
Speaker 4 (21:42):
Yeah, so the state nurseries often sell sass crass I know,
if you're you know, I don't think you have to
be in Kentucky to order them, But Kentucky does sell
that species through the state nursery program, and you can
get a pretty good sized sapling from them if you
have the tree on your property can always harvest the
seed and growth in yourselves when you see it.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
It's rare.
Speaker 1 (22:06):
It's a male female thing, and it's I've only rarely
seen that in seed.
Speaker 10 (22:13):
Okay, I thought I was fighting a losing battle here.
Just time to just get out the wallet.
Speaker 7 (22:20):
But thank you.
Speaker 10 (22:22):
Much and I am enjoying your scorch.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
Well, thank you, have a good day. Thank you Bill Johnn.
You hit something well.
Speaker 3 (22:29):
I just want to commend him on the effort and
the patients because the root prune early, leaving it in
place and letting the root system re establish a smaller
fibers root system in that place can be a fantastic.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
Way if anything's going to work, that's the way, right.
Speaker 3 (22:43):
To increase transplanting odds and uh And to hear that
he went to all those lengths and it still didn't work,
is but very commendable effort. And I was impressed when
he brought that point up.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
Yeah, it was, you know, very good good try and
swing Yeah, yeah, good swing.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
Chris.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
What are you seeing out at Boone County Arboretum right now?
That's looking really good tree wise.
Speaker 4 (23:05):
Looking really good tree wise. I was just admiring our
zel Koba trees. They tend to come out with an
explosion of growth. They're very full right now. And you know,
I know that you see those a lot in urban
landscapes on the street tree, but you rarely see them
planet at home landscapes, which I always think is kind
(23:26):
of interesting. But I was just admiring some of those.
Speaker 1 (23:30):
I think it's because they start with the letter Z
and that they're at the very bottom of their catalogs,
and people don't make it that far. You know, they
have to pass maples and oaks and before they get
to zel covid. But what an adaptable, tough tree that is.
Speaker 5 (23:43):
You know, zel cove is kind of interesting too because
it has a bad rap for having, you know, really
tight branching system and and and when when they get older,
they get some think some of the interior UH leaders
can actually get kind of almost pinched off, pinched off
by other And I always look at that tree. It's
(24:05):
kind of like, well, how do you how would you
ever correct for that? And it's like it's not a
tree that you can really prune very well, is what
I thought. And then I went to a class with
doctor Red Gilman, probably the top expert on tree pruning,
and he walks out to the Zelkova tree in the
Seacrest Starboretum and probably cut fifty percent out of the tree.
(24:26):
And when he was done, it had a nice central
leader and France is coming off. And you know, it
is a tree that I think if you can get
in there early when it's young and do some structural
pruning where you separate out those branch clusters, Uh, it's
not going to do those negative things at older ages,
and it's going to you know, perpetuate itself a lot longer.
Speaker 3 (24:48):
That tree does defy logic somehow though, because even when
you don't do that, it holds together somehow much.
Speaker 2 (24:54):
It doesn't break.
Speaker 5 (24:55):
Yeah, yeah, but it can pinch, It can pinch off
those central Yeah.
Speaker 3 (24:59):
There's negatives too, But I'm always impressed when you see
these big old zel coves in all this included bark
and you know, it's like that should be on the ground,
ay and holding together. It's amazing.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
What else are you seeing out there? Chris?
Speaker 1 (25:11):
And by the way, if people aren't familiar, Boom County
Arboretum is a real gem. It's it's a new arboretum,
a landscape arboretum, just south of the airport here in Cincinnati,
well in northern Kentucky, and a great place for people
to go and see trees and plants that they can
use in their yards and gardens. A great learning facility.
But yeah, I'm sorry I interrupted, Chris. What else is
(25:32):
going on out there?
Speaker 4 (25:34):
The cataba trees have sorted blooming. We've been coming into Bloom.
I get them all over town and at the arboretum.
Speaker 1 (25:41):
This can be absolutely stunning in bloom. I saw one
in central Cincinnati the other day, just in a neighborhood.
Just a spectacular tree. I mean breathtaking. You know, come
around the corner and there's this fifty foot tree in
full bloom, undeniable bloom. You can't miss it. Uh, with
all the character that catalpas have with the brain branching
(26:04):
and the big foliage, it's just fantastic to see that.
Speaker 4 (26:09):
The flowers are very orchid like too. If you got
to close some look, they're just very beautiful, very intricate.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
Yeah, and Ron mentioned earlier the fragrance, which you know,
because it's a tall tree and the flowers are up high,
a lot of times people don't notice, but it's there.
Speaker 3 (26:25):
The coveted catulpa worm for fishing. No one's brought up yet, but.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
I've never seen that, but apparently it's the best fishing
bait there.
Speaker 3 (26:33):
The yeah, fisher people love them.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
It just remind me of lots of those that the oh, well,
let's go fishing, Chris, let's go fishing.
Speaker 4 (26:42):
You can do that.
Speaker 2 (26:43):
What uh one name another.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
Plant that's just blown your I know you want to
mention birch so bad?
Speaker 4 (26:53):
You have some cool birches, yes, yes, about the only
people that do. Uh, you know, we just finished the
red buckeye of flowering season. Yeah, that's always a really
nice small tree that probably doesn't get used enough as well.
It's only drawback is around August. It typically loses love
and leaves, and our staff are volunteers. The visitors all
(27:13):
think they've died, but they have it so they come
back each year in the spring with a nice flush
of beautiful green leaves early in the season and have
beautiful red flowers.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
I like, I like to tell people that are giving
us winter interest in summer late summer, but yeah, I mean,
there's nothing like that flower is such a vivid red
on a on a nice small tree and as John
was mentioning earlier. You know, if you plan it more
in an open site where it gets some wind, the
what is that interactnose or gannardia, Yeah, isn't It might
(27:48):
not be so bad, and it depends from year to year.
Speaker 3 (27:50):
Two certainly does. But it seems to be more resistant
to that disease than the other types of buckeyes that
we grow around.
Speaker 2 (27:58):
That's true.
Speaker 3 (27:59):
Other than the bottom.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
Yellow and yellow buckeyes seem to be pretty.
Speaker 3 (28:02):
Yellows are a little more resistant. Ohio's get it really bad. Yeah,
and the horse chestnuts get them.
Speaker 1 (28:08):
It's a shame because otherwise that would be such a fantastic.
Speaker 3 (28:11):
Tree, still all worthy of growing. It's just absolutely yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
Yeah, yellow buckeyes have got to be one of my
favorite trees. Great tree, just a great one. I'll tell
you what. We're going to take a break. When we
come back, we'll talk more trees. We'll take your calls too.
You've got a panel of incredible tree people here. So
you got a question or a concern, give us a call.
Speaker 2 (28:31):
You're listening to. That's Guarden with Scott Berlin.
Speaker 1 (28:33):
I'm here with John Butcher from Madison Landscape, from Madison
Tree and landscaping, and ron Roth is from the Arbor
Doctor and Chris done from Boone County Arboretum. And Chris,
I don't think we've fully got to explore birches when
you know we were last talking there. I know this
is a passion of yours, and I will just sort
of prime the pump with this. Is that you know,
(28:56):
paper birches tend to not do too well here in
Cincinnati or anywhere where it's more alkalin, a little drier,
a little hotter. But I am noticing that Renaissance oasis,
which is one of the selections, seems to do pretty
consistently well here.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
Is that your observation.
Speaker 4 (29:15):
Yes, we have them. We have a really nice planting
of those, and they have great specimens that spring grow.
We do not treat our trees for any sort of
issues with bronze perch poor and they are holding their own.
So with all that, with that caveat, you always need
to make sure they're in a location where they get
(29:36):
shaded soil, north facing slopes, both sides of buildings. If
there's even a hint of dry weather, you've got to
be irrigating the area. So yeah, it's probably not the
most water wise sustainable tree. But if you really really
really got to have that north Woods look and you
want a paper perch, that's probably one.
Speaker 1 (29:53):
And it's just such a beautiful tree too. You know,
when it's looking good, there's almost nothing that's I have.
Speaker 5 (30:01):
A paper birch on the south side of my house
in full sun, and it always kind of didn't like
that too much. But it's a wet, kind of a
moist area. And then I planted a and this wasn't planned,
it's just one of those things that happens in gardening.
But I planted a don redwood nearby and it's now
thirty thirty five feet tall and it's shading the soil
(30:23):
around this white birch, this paper birch, and this paper
birch is just thriving now as happy it's gonna be
because it's got some protection for the hot sun and
it's got his moisture and it's it. He has everything
it needs.
Speaker 2 (30:35):
So a reminder of.
Speaker 4 (30:37):
God, I was gonna switch over to dogwoods.
Speaker 1 (30:39):
And yeah, let's do that. Let's talk about dogwoods for
a minute.
Speaker 4 (30:45):
Sure, So I think you probably have a Venus dog
wood at your house and it's spectacular what I can recall,
and it is spectacular right now. I was going to
mention that they are in full bloom, huge flowers, bright
white flowers, you know the size of saucers will always
ask what is that? Where do I find that?
Speaker 1 (31:03):
So literally covering flowers. Yeah, yeah, one of the parents
of the venus. The coustas are looking really good right
now too.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
Mm hmm.
Speaker 8 (31:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (31:12):
You know, a lot of questions about those, and they
are just coming into more brightness with the flowers as
the days go by, like beautiful white clouds in the
in the arb orrhythm. And then another hot topic right
now is the smoke trees. The smoke trees that they
are are pull bloom. We have an enormous one called
Grace that either you love it or hate it if
(31:35):
you're in the horticultural industry. Our tree has gotten quite
old and has kind of flopped over. But as it's
done that, it's kind of rooted into the ground and
formed this enormous mounded clone and it is quite spectacul
right now. But they are in full bloom, as are
the American smoke trees. So there's a native version that's
a native to North America. And then we have other
(31:56):
cultivars that Golden Spirit Velvet Cloak. They are all in
bloom right now, and we get a lot.
Speaker 1 (32:01):
Of questions they're so showy, and again, it might not
be everybody's taste the way these the flowers truly look
like puffs of smoke, but they are when they're putting
on a show. It is something to see.
Speaker 3 (32:17):
And they just look good all year with the color
of the fold, right uh. And the and actually I
love when you plant the maroons ones next to the
shard truth ones, like there's that contrast is really good
for me. I don't know.
Speaker 1 (32:31):
There's two good new cultivars that I think are both
proven winter selections, Winecraft Gold and Winecraft Black or maroon
or something. Those are really nice and and really good
colors to them.
Speaker 3 (32:47):
Are we insisting on calling them smoke trees today and
not smoke bush because it's tree Day? Because it's it's
an interchangeable terms, right, Yeah, thanks for bringing that up.
Speaker 4 (33:00):
Something I always like to note too, is on the
smoke tree smoke bush, if you have a lot of
do in the morning or just rain, the foliage kind
of holds the water and that's a really cool characteristic
not plant. Not a lot of plants to do.
Speaker 1 (33:14):
Both, both the exotic and the native prefer a little
bit on the dryer side.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
The native especially.
Speaker 1 (33:21):
I think, uh, what is it verticicilium weld or something,
but that there tends to be a problem if it's
in too wet a location or a site that has
verd of solium weld. I've seen it on a berm,
you know, just a miserable looking berm in front of
a strip mall with you know, you know, it doesn't
get any attention whatsoever, and it's just growing beautifully.
Speaker 4 (33:45):
Yeah, it's a it's an outstanding tree for fall color.
The American spoke tree especially outstanding fall color too, and
it's hard to beat that. You get the oranges, the red,
the gold, kind of combination of all of that on
on the single tree. Sometimes. Yeah, there's some nice specimens
of spring growth. Knock or socks off if you assume
on the ball.
Speaker 2 (34:03):
Yeah, well, yeah, just I've come to like that tree.
Speaker 1 (34:07):
I didn't at first, and the more I've seen it,
the more i've been around it, the more I'm appreciating
the beauty on that John, you mentioned in our notes
that anthracnose is starting to show up.
Speaker 2 (34:18):
Do you want to talk about that a little bit.
Speaker 3 (34:19):
Well, there's a lot of things that get anthracnose, and
they're not all necessarily treated the same way. Most scenarios
where you're going to get anthractnose, there's not a whole
lot you can do about it post getting the disease.
But it's a fungal disease that kind of creates a black,
twisted look on the leaves. Our native dogwoods actually when
(34:41):
they get it, are really affected negatively by it, and
oftentimes we get a lot of die back. Most native
trees that get anthracnose, you have it looking bad for
a good chunk of the spring, and then the new
leaves push back out later in the year and they
tend to look fine. Sycamores are really prolific with that.
(35:02):
Ash trees get it a lot, But you can find
anthracnose on I mean, so many things. Oak trees get them.
I can't. I mean, I think the list goes on
and on.
Speaker 2 (35:11):
For what that is.
Speaker 3 (35:12):
But in most cases it's not something that you're going
to want to treat for. If it becomes a problem
a year after year. There may be some options that
we can discuss, but it's not something you just want.
Speaker 2 (35:22):
To run actially with these bigger trees. And right right,
is wet weather favors and threats? Correct? Right? Right?
Speaker 3 (35:29):
Well, any fungus right you got where you have wet
humid weather, those kind of things are great environments.
Speaker 5 (35:35):
And yeah, and wet wet as opposed to you know,
when it's really wet, like pounding rains, that can actually decrease.
Speaker 2 (35:43):
It some because.
Speaker 5 (35:45):
Yeah, there's just a lot of moisture, a lot of
do a lot of light grizzly rain which will seem
to have gotten into that pattern recently. It really promotes it.
Speaker 1 (35:54):
London planes are susceptible to it, but I think that
a few selections are are more resistant. Chris, what would
be some of the better ones for resistance?
Speaker 4 (36:05):
Oh, let's see. So you've got the culture of ours
from Morton Arboretum. Yeah, they've kind of put out some
new ones recently.
Speaker 2 (36:15):
Exclamation.
Speaker 1 (36:15):
I think, yeah, definitely one that's good for that. So we, uh,
we are going to go to break. When we come back,
we'll talk more about trees. We do want your calls.
Eight hundred eight two three eighty two fifty five call
with your questions.
Speaker 2 (36:30):
We'll be back in just a few minutes.
Oh with John Butcher from Medison Tree Care and Landscape
and Ron Rothis from the Arbor Doctor, and now we're
joined by Chris Stone from Boom County Arboretum. But I
do before we get back to Chris, I do want
to John to finish a point he wanted to make
as we were finishing.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
The last segment.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
I just wanted to emphasize the importance of watering trees
in a drought scenario. Everybody thinks about the lawn and
how much the lawn needs water, and they're paying attention
to the lawn. Grass can be replaced. Lawns are really resilient.
They can go dormant and actually come back. When you're
thirty fifty year old tree dies, there is no replacing
(00:40):
that immediately. And evergreens are particularly susceptible. Norway spruce, Western arbravity,
Eastern arbravity. Those really show it the next spring when
we have a bad drought, and there's a lot of
those that are dead this spring from the droughts last year.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
But also your.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Big legacy trees, your oaks, the ones that you never
think about that need water, maybe aren't going to die,
but if you soak them really deep once every couple
of weeks in a bad drought scenario. To me, that's
water much better spent than trying to trying to keep
the lawn green all year.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Yeah, it's really easy to take big trees for granted,
you kind of look past them and you see your
lawn is brown, and that seems alarming, but it really
isn't that big a deal. But your trees may look
perfectly green, but they're stressing, and that is a big deal.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Yep, yep. Well, let's welcome.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Christine on the line, director of Boone County Arboretum and
good friend of mine and.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Just a great tree expert. Chris, Welcome, good morning.
Speaker 4 (01:42):
How are you guys doing.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
We're all fine so far. Somebody's going to get their
feelings hurt before too long, but so far, so good.
It might be you, It might be you. What's going
on at Boone County Arboretum these days?
Speaker 4 (02:01):
Oh, lots of events, of course in the spring season,
so we're always doing that. But we're planting lots of
trial plants in our trial gardens. Just got our annuals installed,
so all that spring chaos is has been well in
our way. Yeah, and we're of course planting new trees
and things that we're talking about.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
Already this morning, so we'll dig deep into that.
Speaker 4 (02:20):
I just add that we yeah, I would add that
we watch the lawns. If the lawns starts to stop
growing or turns a little bit brown. The trees need
water too, so very good tag that into t John's comments.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Uh, we you know we have three well, I'll even
call myself an expert. We have four good tree people
here together today and we want to answer your questions.
So feel free to call in eight hundred eight three
eighty two fifty five. Any kind of question you got
about trees. Will either have a great answer for you
(02:55):
or we won't. But probably we will, and we won't fudget.
If we don't know the answer, we'll let you know.
So please call in. We've got the people here that
can help you out. So until those folks start calling in,
what are some curt questions?
Speaker 5 (03:13):
What's that phone number?
Speaker 1 (03:14):
Scott eight hundred eight two three eight two five five
eight hundred eight two three eighty two fifty five.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
There you go. Yes, current issues. You guys are out
in the field.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
You're seeing you're getting calls from people saying, hey, what's
going wrong here? Or what's wrong there? What are some
of the issues you guys are seeing right now out
in the field.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
You know one that's really common that's been coming up
a lot, or southern magnolia's right now just look pretty
bad overall. And what's happening is not necessarily a disease problem.
But they're you know, the old leaves from last year,
they're bulch off, yeah, and the new ones haven't come
out yet, and a lot of them just look really
(03:55):
really weak. And and if you look really closely, the
stems are green, there's new buds are starting to pop.
Just give it a little patience. It's been a cool,
slow spring, which I'm actually thoroughly enjoying, and I feel
like it's been one of the nicest working springs that
that I can remember in a long time. But but
these southern plants really haven't started to pop yet, and
(04:17):
I think just giving a little patience to those would
would go a long way.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
I love that tree.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
It's it's a beautiful broad leaf evergreen that works really
well in our landscapes.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
But the one downside.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
Is it it's two or three weeks of looking bad
or when everything else looks good, So it kind of
you know, it can bring down your landscape just a
slight bit, you know, and this time of.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
Year worth using regardless of that, absolutely. And the other
downside to that plant would be the you know, the
kind of constant leaf litter where they're dropping leaves throughout
a lot of the season. So if you have a pool,
maybe it's not the perfect plant right next to your deck,
but tons of great places to use.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
Super satisfying to run over with them or they just
chat right.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
Up, Yes, sod and picking out some of the cultivars
that are a little more cold hardy goes along with
part for our area and.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
North, I think zone six B is about as far
six A is probably about as far north as you
can get. And if you're getting in the northern edges,
you probably want to protect them from wind. Right, Yeah,
but Ded Blanchard, Brackens.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
Brown, Rackens Brown, Edith Bogue.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Edith Bogue, Chris you you know of some a few
other northern hardy types, right.
Speaker 4 (05:37):
The other's the local spring Grove Selections. Yeah, has a
number attached to it. I never can't remember the number.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Sixteen.
Speaker 4 (05:44):
Hey, that's coming on the sixteen, Yes, coming on the market.
That's a really good local selection. There are a couple
from central Illinois to that are worth looking into. I
think it's called twenty four below might be one of.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Those, that's right.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
I've heard about that one maybe being hardy to even Chicago.
That gets, you know, kind of I question that, but
I've heard that mentioned. So who knows, Roan, what are
you seeing out there when when you get called well.
Speaker 5 (06:11):
I was just going to say on the southern Magnoia,
I mean, a neat thing about that tree is it?
It does adapt to a lot of different soils. It's
pretty easy to grow. So for the average homeowner, it's
not one of these plants that needs to be babied
or anything like that. It's really it's it's really nice
for that regard. The things that I'm seeing really are
(06:34):
things that a lot of them are just long term things.
I always see where trees are not being planted correctly,
you know, things like that not being prune correctly.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
That that's a big one.
Speaker 5 (06:50):
I mean, really the biggest issue, the biggest two issues
really that that have been ongoing is neil cast disease
on blue.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
Spruce, which is you know, just hard to find a
blue spruce around here anymore.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
Yeah, pretty much.
Speaker 5 (07:05):
So we have a decent number of them out there,
and I still get calls about them, you know, what's
wrong with it? And it's like, well, the same thing
has been wrong with them for years. And then the
box tree moth, the insect that's attacking boxwood shrubs. There's
a tree show, so it's called the box tree moth,
but we don't know it's in Europe where they grow
(07:26):
them as trees, and I don't know I might grow
them as trees somewhere in the United States. I'm not sure.
I've seen hardly any of those. But but you know
that will devour a boxwood.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
Very quickly, Yeah, very quickly. Looks like we have a caller.
Let's go go ahead and take their question. Okay, never
mind that, we'll get back to them. But yeah, I
think we'll talk about the box tree moth in more
depth a little bit later in the show, because it's
a pretty big subject.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
Going back to the.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
Southern magnolias, you were mentioning how tough they are inadaptable.
Since an zoo and botanical garden, we use them a
lot for a tropical look for exhibits and also for
screening so they often get used, smashed in with a
bunch of other plants, and and you know, I've learned
that they can take really dry conditions, a lot of
(08:17):
root competition in deep shade and still perform pretty well.
We do have that caller now, it's Maria from Cincinnati. Maria,
what's your question?
Speaker 2 (08:26):
Marla? Marla?
Speaker 6 (08:27):
Sorry, I have a question about my most hated tree atlantis.
We had two cut down and now their babies are
all over my lawn. Do I dig them up or
do ICE spray them?
Speaker 2 (08:42):
Spray them?
Speaker 1 (08:43):
I girdled three big alanthis in the woods at a
client's house long ago, and it was like a like
the floor, the forest floor became fern heaven with little
lanthis root suckers. And those are root suckers. They're not
really ceilings. A few might be ceilings, but they're all
(09:04):
connected to that old root system and the only way
to knock them down is repeated springs. With repeating springs,
you guys have any different opinion on that.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
Sometimes you can cut them down and you can do
it and grind the stump out and you don't have
that happen. And other times you cut it one down
and the roots just go crazy. And I don't know
the rhyme or reason on when that takes place, but
there is a forestry trick where they say, if you
and this is too late for her, but for people
in general, where if you cut the tree first and
(09:38):
you apply the proper chemical around the base and actually
kill it, and then you have a removal scheduled later,
the odds of those roots taking over later are much less.
And that's you know, there's a lot of foresight in that,
and it's not a guarantee that you'll even have the
root issue, but that is a way to minimize that
risk for other people in the future. A mowing regiment.
(10:00):
We will eventually wear out those suckers that she's talking about,
but if they're not all on the lawn or in
an easy to access place. I do think that that
chemical treatments probably your only bet.
Speaker 6 (10:12):
Regular strengths or a particular chemical, you know, I.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
Would I would go with glycossate, which you want to
look at the bottle and make sure you've got the
real thing. With glacis con that's the best kind. Yeah,
and I think probably start with three percent. You can
look online and see if if alanthus is listed for
a higher percentage or not, but you know it might
(10:40):
be on the label that way.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
I'm not sure, but.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
I would start with unless you see online or on
the label that it you know a certain percentage is
recommended for Tree of Heaven, then just go ahead and
start with three percent.
Speaker 5 (10:54):
You can you can if you go to individual sprouts
that are coming up and cut those off and just
dab on about a fifty percent solution onto that cut,
that that can.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
Help.
Speaker 5 (11:09):
I mean, I don't know there's much of anything that's
going to completely eliminate it at one one shot.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
That might work if you have relatively few suckers coming up,
but you know, what I had, what I experienced in
this in this way was in the woods, but it
was thousands.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (11:27):
Yeah, well they're in our woods too, but yeah, it's
beyond me and not not all my property.
Speaker 5 (11:35):
I would lean toward the heavier. When we get the
the the label, it'll have different percentages, and I would
go with one of the heavier percentages, like even six
or eight percent, because you're dealing with not just a
little sprout and there's only so many leaves to absorb that,
but you're dealing with an extensive basically tree root system.
(11:59):
You know the same things kind of true with poison ivy.
I mean you're dealing with a more extensive what he plante.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
We need to go to break Thanks for your call,
Marlotte Hotels helpful. You certainly welcome, and when we come back,
we'll talk with Matthew. You're listening to Let's Guard with
Scott Berline. We'll be back in just a couple of
vis You're listening to Let's Guard with Scott Berlin. I'm
here with John Butcher from Madison Tree Care and Landscape
and Ron rothis from the arbor Doctor. And also with
(12:25):
this is Christine from Boone County Arboretum. This is a
day focused on trees, all kinds of tree topics and things,
and we've got Matthew on the line.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
Matthew, what is your question?
Speaker 7 (12:38):
Good morning? Yes, not exactly a tree question, but how
about a spice bush question?
Speaker 2 (12:43):
Will fall in the radar, Yes it would, Okay.
Speaker 7 (12:47):
I have a couple of spice bushes and it looks
like they've have lindor emavirus. They got the coloradic modeling
of the leaves and also the leaves are crinkling up
and Mike, question is what is the long term prognosis
prognosis on this as far as being a virus? Should
I cut these bushes down? Or how should I approach it?
Speaker 2 (13:11):
UH?
Speaker 1 (13:12):
The call on Chris for this one. Chris, do you
have any thoughts on this one?
Speaker 4 (13:17):
I have unfortunately not had a chance to deal with that.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
I do fortunately not well.
Speaker 4 (13:25):
Fortunately, fortunately fortunately we haven't had a chance to deal
with that. But unfortunately I don't know the answer is
the answer?
Speaker 5 (13:34):
Yeah, I can't say that I've specifically dealt with it,
but generally with a virus, you're not going to have
any type of actual treatment right for that. So if
it's something that UH is making these plants so it's
not viable anymore, I would think removal is about the
only the only way you can go.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
How sure of the diagnosis are you, Matthew.
Speaker 7 (14:00):
Well, I'd say, well, as far as what I can
see online, everything I've seen that I've seen on the
plant corresponds to what I've it's indicated people have diagnosed
online for it.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
How many how many spice tied.
Speaker 7 (14:20):
Down at all? I mean, it started maybe about a
year ago and it's starting to come back this as
the weather warms up and it hasn't killed the tree yet.
I mean it just kind of has all these the
leaves that look like the chlorodic medaling and the shrinkage crinkling,
(14:41):
and just kind of wondering the long term, Uh should
I kill cut down or even if I cut it down, well,
the can I plant another spice bush in that area?
Or does a spice or does the virus uh remain
in the soil?
Speaker 3 (14:59):
What what I was the to ask us, how many
spice bush do you have in that area? Is it
just this one plant?
Speaker 2 (15:04):
There's three?
Speaker 3 (15:05):
So, like, is it in all three of them are
showing these symptoms?
Speaker 2 (15:10):
Okay?
Speaker 3 (15:11):
Yeah, so like this is without me knowing any specific
thing to this particular disease on this plant. But I
would ride it out through this season, cut them all
back really hard, maybe even to the ground next year,
let them flush back out, see what they do, and
if you know, if they make it, they make it.
(15:32):
If not, I would I would for sure put something
else back in there.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
The rule is not to replace something that died with
the same thing.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
Yeah, right, sight, Chris, what I was afraid of.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (15:46):
I would also recommend that you take samples to your
local Extension office to have those. Yeah, you're not doing
something that you don't need to do.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
Okay, well, thank you, Matthew. We'll move on to Martha
and Lexington with her question. Ope, she's not.
Speaker 8 (16:02):
There, Good morning, I'm here.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
Okay, Yeah, go ahead.
Speaker 8 (16:07):
I've got a southern magnolia that was affected by some
of the cold that came through the last cold snap,
not the ice, but the other one, and about the
top third to half has completely the leaves are completely dead.
It's the leathery kind of lead, right, they're completely dead.
(16:29):
When I do the thumbnail test, I still see some
green in the branches. Is this gonna come back?
Speaker 2 (16:37):
Well, you just have a minute to answer that question, John,
I would.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
Absolutely say if you do the scratch test and it's
still green, to give it some more time. It's still
early for southern magnolias. They haven't come out all the way.
If you give it another month and it's still not
coming out and it should start scratching brown, eventually, you
can cut that back to where it's viable. Those plants
handle pruning really really well, and we'll regenerate if you
(17:02):
cut them back hard.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
Hope that helps Martha. We need to go to break.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
You're listening to Let's Garden with Scott Berlin again. The
podcasts are available on all the best sources of podcasts.
We're taking your calls today eight hundred eighty two three
eighty two fifty five. We'll be back in just a
couple of minutes with more on trees. If you want
to talk to our honorable celebrated panel of experts on
(17:31):
trees today, give us a call. We will answer your
questions or try to Were we going to finish a
point or did we determine? No, we've we've we were
looked on the spice bush question and we came up.
We looked into it a little bit and found that
we answered it pretty well.
Speaker 3 (17:48):
I do think Chris's point was the best though about
using your local extension for a test. I really really
thought that he nailed it with that part.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
Yeah, and that's a great way to get an absolute diagnosis.
And then extension. They diagnose so many things that they know.
They tend to know the proper action to take, you know,
pretty much off hand. So not that you guys don't
you guys are great.
Speaker 3 (18:12):
Well, there's there's a visual test can can give us
a lot and you don't need a lab test for everything,
but there are some things that where you just need
to culture that right disease out and you just there's
some things you can't confirm with Sometimes.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
They find the completely unexpected too, or a secondary cause
and that kind of thing.
Speaker 5 (18:32):
I was talking to my my physician once we got
into the the subject of diagnostics and diagnostic testing, and
she said that ninety of the lab tests that they
do are confirmational, just to confirm what they think is
actually going on, but they want to make sure that
they've got the right diagnosis.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
It's a lot like what a doctor in medicine would do.
You know, she was a doctor in medicine.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
Oh, well, there you go. I maybe I wasn't listen.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
I've faded out for a minute. We have Carroll on
the line from Villa Hills, Kentucky. Carrol, how are you.
Speaker 9 (19:08):
Oh, I'm good, Thank you, Good morning, gentlemen. My question
is on my very large pinoak tree. It's about i'd
say sixty feet high or so. It's the sort of
gem of my landscape. But it's been struck by lightning
twice in the last two years or three years, and
the first strike wasn't too too bad and it was
healing over nicely. The second strike did a really bad
(19:30):
number on it, all the way from the branches down
into the roots. This year it only leafed out about
one quarter of the entire tree, and some of the
leafs the branches that did leave out now are dying.
Am my toast on this tree? Or do you think
if I share it back and try and rejuvenate it
(19:54):
that it will come back out again?
Speaker 3 (19:56):
Go ahead, John Well, I mean, I think that the
odds of this ever becoming a grand old tree the
way that we think of it now are very low.
Depending on your taste for patience and spending money. There
is a possibility that you could do a full retrenchment
pruning on this and cut it way back, much harder
(20:17):
than we would recommend for any traditional arboricultural standards, but
that that could sprout back out from the trunk and
the base and give some a piece of that tree
as a legacy. But it's never going to be the
tree the way that you think of it again.
Speaker 9 (20:32):
Okay, Okay, i's afraid of but I've been wanted to
check before I take it out.
Speaker 3 (20:37):
I think I think it's probably safe to take that
one out based on what you're saying.
Speaker 9 (20:41):
Okay, well, thank you very much for your opinions. I
appreciate so much.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
Certainly welcome Carol Bill from Cincinnati. What can we do
for you?
Speaker 10 (20:51):
Well, I've tried to transplan from the wild Sasa press
and no luck. Right, because it's somewhat of a cold
colony type tree.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
Yeah, it's because you know, it's it's connected to probably
twelve other sassafras in the area, or at least certainly
a mother tree, and you practically, for practical purposes, you
cannot get enough root system to support the transplant.
Speaker 10 (21:22):
I tried root print punting and leaving them alone for
a year, and everything's fine. Until I dig it up.
It ain't gonna move. So you're saying I should order
one from a nursery.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
Well, Christmas jumping in, Chris, what are your your thoughts?
Speaker 4 (21:42):
Yeah, so the state nurseries often sell sass crass I know,
if you're you know, I don't think you have to
be in Kentucky to order them, But Kentucky does sell
that species through the state nursery program, and you can
get a pretty good sized sapling from them if you
have the tree on your property can always harvest the
seed and growth in yourselves when you see it.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
It's rare.
Speaker 1 (22:06):
It's a male female thing, and it's I've only rarely
seen that in seed.
Speaker 10 (22:13):
Okay, I thought I was fighting a losing battle here.
Just time to just get out the wallet.
Speaker 7 (22:20):
But thank you.
Speaker 10 (22:22):
Much and I am enjoying your scorch.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
Well, thank you, have a good day. Thank you Bill Johnn.
You hit something well.
Speaker 3 (22:29):
I just want to commend him on the effort and
the patients because the root prune early, leaving it in
place and letting the root system re establish a smaller
fibers root system in that place can be a fantastic.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
Way if anything's going to work, that's the way, right.
Speaker 3 (22:43):
To increase transplanting odds and uh And to hear that
he went to all those lengths and it still didn't work,
is but very commendable effort. And I was impressed when
he brought that point up.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
Yeah, it was, you know, very good good try and
swing Yeah, yeah, good swing.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
Chris.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
What are you seeing out at Boone County Arboretum right now?
That's looking really good tree wise.
Speaker 4 (23:05):
Looking really good tree wise. I was just admiring our
zel Koba trees. They tend to come out with an
explosion of growth. They're very full right now. And you know,
I know that you see those a lot in urban
landscapes on the street tree, but you rarely see them
planet at home landscapes, which I always think is kind
(23:26):
of interesting. But I was just admiring some of those.
Speaker 1 (23:30):
I think it's because they start with the letter Z
and that they're at the very bottom of their catalogs,
and people don't make it that far. You know, they
have to pass maples and oaks and before they get
to zel covid. But what an adaptable, tough tree that is.
Speaker 5 (23:43):
You know, zel cove is kind of interesting too because
it has a bad rap for having, you know, really
tight branching system and and and when when they get older,
they get some think some of the interior UH leaders
can actually get kind of almost pinched off, pinched off
by other And I always look at that tree. It's
(24:05):
kind of like, well, how do you how would you
ever correct for that? And it's like it's not a
tree that you can really prune very well, is what
I thought. And then I went to a class with
doctor Red Gilman, probably the top expert on tree pruning,
and he walks out to the Zelkova tree in the
Seacrest Starboretum and probably cut fifty percent out of the tree.
(24:26):
And when he was done, it had a nice central
leader and France is coming off. And you know, it
is a tree that I think if you can get
in there early when it's young and do some structural
pruning where you separate out those branch clusters, Uh, it's
not going to do those negative things at older ages,
and it's going to you know, perpetuate itself a lot longer.
Speaker 3 (24:48):
That tree does defy logic somehow though, because even when
you don't do that, it holds together somehow much.
Speaker 2 (24:54):
It doesn't break.
Speaker 5 (24:55):
Yeah, yeah, but it can pinch, It can pinch off
those central Yeah.
Speaker 3 (24:59):
There's negatives too, But I'm always impressed when you see
these big old zel coves in all this included bark
and you know, it's like that should be on the ground,
ay and holding together. It's amazing.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
What else are you seeing out there? Chris?
Speaker 1 (25:11):
And by the way, if people aren't familiar, Boom County
Arboretum is a real gem. It's it's a new arboretum,
a landscape arboretum, just south of the airport here in Cincinnati,
well in northern Kentucky, and a great place for people
to go and see trees and plants that they can
use in their yards and gardens. A great learning facility.
But yeah, I'm sorry I interrupted, Chris. What else is
(25:32):
going on out there?
Speaker 4 (25:34):
The cataba trees have sorted blooming. We've been coming into Bloom.
I get them all over town and at the arboretum.
Speaker 1 (25:41):
This can be absolutely stunning in bloom. I saw one
in central Cincinnati the other day, just in a neighborhood.
Just a spectacular tree. I mean breathtaking. You know, come
around the corner and there's this fifty foot tree in
full bloom, undeniable bloom. You can't miss it. Uh, with
all the character that catalpas have with the brain branching
(26:04):
and the big foliage, it's just fantastic to see that.
Speaker 4 (26:09):
The flowers are very orchid like too. If you got
to close some look, they're just very beautiful, very intricate.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
Yeah, and Ron mentioned earlier the fragrance, which you know,
because it's a tall tree and the flowers are up high,
a lot of times people don't notice, but it's there.
Speaker 3 (26:25):
The coveted catulpa worm for fishing. No one's brought up yet, but.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
I've never seen that, but apparently it's the best fishing
bait there.
Speaker 3 (26:33):
The yeah, fisher people love them.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
It just remind me of lots of those that the oh, well,
let's go fishing, Chris, let's go fishing.
Speaker 4 (26:42):
You can do that.
Speaker 2 (26:43):
What uh one name another.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
Plant that's just blown your I know you want to
mention birch so bad?
Speaker 4 (26:53):
You have some cool birches, yes, yes, about the only
people that do. Uh, you know, we just finished the
red buckeye of flowering season. Yeah, that's always a really
nice small tree that probably doesn't get used enough as well.
It's only drawback is around August. It typically loses love
and leaves, and our staff are volunteers. The visitors all
(27:13):
think they've died, but they have it so they come
back each year in the spring with a nice flush
of beautiful green leaves early in the season and have
beautiful red flowers.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
I like, I like to tell people that are giving
us winter interest in summer late summer, but yeah, I mean,
there's nothing like that flower is such a vivid red
on a on a nice small tree and as John
was mentioning earlier. You know, if you plan it more
in an open site where it gets some wind, the
what is that interactnose or gannardia, Yeah, isn't It might
(27:48):
not be so bad, and it depends from year to year.
Speaker 3 (27:50):
Two certainly does. But it seems to be more resistant
to that disease than the other types of buckeyes that
we grow around.
Speaker 2 (27:58):
That's true.
Speaker 3 (27:59):
Other than the bottom.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
Yellow and yellow buckeyes seem to be pretty.
Speaker 3 (28:02):
Yellows are a little more resistant. Ohio's get it really bad. Yeah,
and the horse chestnuts get them.
Speaker 1 (28:08):
It's a shame because otherwise that would be such a fantastic.
Speaker 3 (28:11):
Tree, still all worthy of growing. It's just absolutely yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
Yeah, yellow buckeyes have got to be one of my
favorite trees. Great tree, just a great one. I'll tell
you what. We're going to take a break. When we
come back, we'll talk more trees. We'll take your calls too.
You've got a panel of incredible tree people here. So
you got a question or a concern, give us a call.
Speaker 2 (28:31):
You're listening to. That's Guarden with Scott Berlin.
Speaker 1 (28:33):
I'm here with John Butcher from Madison Landscape, from Madison
Tree and landscaping, and ron Roth is from the Arbor
Doctor and Chris done from Boone County Arboretum. And Chris,
I don't think we've fully got to explore birches when
you know we were last talking there. I know this
is a passion of yours, and I will just sort
of prime the pump with this. Is that you know,
(28:56):
paper birches tend to not do too well here in
Cincinnati or anywhere where it's more alkalin, a little drier,
a little hotter. But I am noticing that Renaissance oasis,
which is one of the selections, seems to do pretty
consistently well here.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
Is that your observation.
Speaker 4 (29:15):
Yes, we have them. We have a really nice planting
of those, and they have great specimens that spring grow.
We do not treat our trees for any sort of
issues with bronze perch poor and they are holding their own.
So with all that, with that caveat, you always need
to make sure they're in a location where they get
(29:36):
shaded soil, north facing slopes, both sides of buildings. If
there's even a hint of dry weather, you've got to
be irrigating the area. So yeah, it's probably not the
most water wise sustainable tree. But if you really really
really got to have that north Woods look and you
want a paper perch, that's probably one.
Speaker 1 (29:53):
And it's just such a beautiful tree too. You know,
when it's looking good, there's almost nothing that's I have.
Speaker 5 (30:01):
A paper birch on the south side of my house
in full sun, and it always kind of didn't like
that too much. But it's a wet, kind of a
moist area. And then I planted a and this wasn't planned,
it's just one of those things that happens in gardening.
But I planted a don redwood nearby and it's now
thirty thirty five feet tall and it's shading the soil
(30:23):
around this white birch, this paper birch, and this paper
birch is just thriving now as happy it's gonna be
because it's got some protection for the hot sun and
it's got his moisture and it's it. He has everything
it needs.
Speaker 2 (30:35):
So a reminder of.
Speaker 4 (30:37):
God, I was gonna switch over to dogwoods.
Speaker 1 (30:39):
And yeah, let's do that. Let's talk about dogwoods for
a minute.
Speaker 4 (30:45):
Sure, So I think you probably have a Venus dog
wood at your house and it's spectacular what I can recall,
and it is spectacular right now. I was going to
mention that they are in full bloom, huge flowers, bright
white flowers, you know the size of saucers will always
ask what is that? Where do I find that?
Speaker 1 (31:03):
So literally covering flowers. Yeah, yeah, one of the parents
of the venus. The coustas are looking really good right
now too.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
Mm hmm.
Speaker 8 (31:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (31:12):
You know, a lot of questions about those, and they
are just coming into more brightness with the flowers as
the days go by, like beautiful white clouds in the
in the arb orrhythm. And then another hot topic right
now is the smoke trees. The smoke trees that they
are are pull bloom. We have an enormous one called
Grace that either you love it or hate it if
(31:35):
you're in the horticultural industry. Our tree has gotten quite
old and has kind of flopped over. But as it's
done that, it's kind of rooted into the ground and
formed this enormous mounded clone and it is quite spectacul
right now. But they are in full bloom, as are
the American smoke trees. So there's a native version that's
a native to North America. And then we have other
(31:56):
cultivars that Golden Spirit Velvet Cloak. They are all in
bloom right now, and we get a lot.
Speaker 1 (32:01):
Of questions they're so showy, and again, it might not
be everybody's taste the way these the flowers truly look
like puffs of smoke, but they are when they're putting
on a show. It is something to see.
Speaker 3 (32:17):
And they just look good all year with the color
of the fold, right uh. And the and actually I
love when you plant the maroons ones next to the
shard truth ones, like there's that contrast is really good
for me. I don't know.
Speaker 1 (32:31):
There's two good new cultivars that I think are both
proven winter selections, Winecraft Gold and Winecraft Black or maroon
or something. Those are really nice and and really good
colors to them.
Speaker 3 (32:47):
Are we insisting on calling them smoke trees today and
not smoke bush because it's tree Day? Because it's it's
an interchangeable terms, right, Yeah, thanks for bringing that up.
Speaker 4 (33:00):
Something I always like to note too, is on the
smoke tree smoke bush, if you have a lot of
do in the morning or just rain, the foliage kind
of holds the water and that's a really cool characteristic
not plant. Not a lot of plants to do.
Speaker 1 (33:14):
Both, both the exotic and the native prefer a little
bit on the dryer side.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
The native especially.
Speaker 1 (33:21):
I think, uh, what is it verticicilium weld or something,
but that there tends to be a problem if it's
in too wet a location or a site that has
verd of solium weld. I've seen it on a berm,
you know, just a miserable looking berm in front of
a strip mall with you know, you know, it doesn't
get any attention whatsoever, and it's just growing beautifully.
Speaker 4 (33:45):
Yeah, it's a it's an outstanding tree for fall color.
The American spoke tree especially outstanding fall color too, and
it's hard to beat that. You get the oranges, the red,
the gold, kind of combination of all of that on
on the single tree. Sometimes. Yeah, there's some nice specimens
of spring growth. Knock or socks off if you assume
on the ball.
Speaker 2 (34:03):
Yeah, well, yeah, just I've come to like that tree.
Speaker 1 (34:07):
I didn't at first, and the more I've seen it,
the more i've been around it, the more I'm appreciating
the beauty on that John, you mentioned in our notes
that anthracnose is starting to show up.
Speaker 2 (34:18):
Do you want to talk about that a little bit.
Speaker 3 (34:19):
Well, there's a lot of things that get anthracnose, and
they're not all necessarily treated the same way. Most scenarios
where you're going to get anthractnose, there's not a whole
lot you can do about it post getting the disease.
But it's a fungal disease that kind of creates a black,
twisted look on the leaves. Our native dogwoods actually when
(34:41):
they get it, are really affected negatively by it, and
oftentimes we get a lot of die back. Most native
trees that get anthracnose, you have it looking bad for
a good chunk of the spring, and then the new
leaves push back out later in the year and they
tend to look fine. Sycamores are really prolific with that.
(35:02):
Ash trees get it a lot, But you can find
anthracnose on I mean, so many things. Oak trees get them.
I can't. I mean, I think the list goes on
and on.
Speaker 2 (35:11):
For what that is.
Speaker 3 (35:12):
But in most cases it's not something that you're going
to want to treat for. If it becomes a problem
a year after year. There may be some options that
we can discuss, but it's not something you just want.
Speaker 2 (35:22):
To run actially with these bigger trees. And right right,
is wet weather favors and threats? Correct? Right? Right?
Speaker 3 (35:29):
Well, any fungus right you got where you have wet
humid weather, those kind of things are great environments.
Speaker 5 (35:35):
And yeah, and wet wet as opposed to you know,
when it's really wet, like pounding rains, that can actually decrease.
Speaker 2 (35:43):
It some because.
Speaker 5 (35:45):
Yeah, there's just a lot of moisture, a lot of
do a lot of light grizzly rain which will seem
to have gotten into that pattern recently. It really promotes it.
Speaker 1 (35:54):
London planes are susceptible to it, but I think that
a few selections are are more resistant. Chris, what would
be some of the better ones for resistance?
Speaker 4 (36:05):
Oh, let's see. So you've got the culture of ours
from Morton Arboretum. Yeah, they've kind of put out some
new ones recently.
Speaker 2 (36:15):
Exclamation.
Speaker 1 (36:15):
I think, yeah, definitely one that's good for that. So we, uh,
we are going to go to break. When we come back,
we'll talk more about trees. We do want your calls.
Eight hundred eight two three eighty two fifty five call
with your questions.
Speaker 2 (36:30):
We'll be back in just a few minutes.
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