Treecologic
140 Melissa St # 3 E3A 6W1 Fredericton, NB, Canada

Friday Fact Corner: The brilliant scarlet leaves of this Freeman maple (Acer x freemanii) are still vibrant even against a steely grey November sky - small wonder this cultivar is called "Autumn Blaze"! This cultivar is named for the person who first produced it, Oliver Freeman, who attempted the crossbreed of silver and red maples back in 1933. We now know that these species hybridize in the wild - many of Fredericton's urban red maples are actually Freeman maples - but only... an Autumn Blaze has leaves boasting that lurid red glow throughout the fall. Wild Freeman maples tend to either yellow or brownish-red fall colour. Fall colour is well worth considering when you're adding trees and shrubs to your property. Birches, lindens, honey locust and tamaracks have brilliant golds, oaks have scarlet and bronze, and maples run from pale yellow through to burning orange and red and into almost purple for some dark-leaved species. For exotic species, ginkgos have lovely golden fall colour but the show they put on is brief - a day or two at most and then the leaves are unceremoniously shed all at once. Katsuras have pinkish-orange fall colour and the crushed leaves smell sweet, almost like cotton candy! If you can find a sheltered spot in a warm microclimate, sweetgums have such vibrant red fall colour that it almost bleeds into fuchsia, while redbuds are a little hardier and have pale yellow autumn leaves. Let's not neglect shrubs - no conversation about fall colour should exclude winged euonymus aka "burning bush". Its bright red-pink leaves glow perhaps even brighter than Autumn Blaze, and a yard with both is quite a vivid sight. Staghorn sumac has a bright red blaze as well, some showing more pink or orange as well, while oakleaf hydrangea and wild blueberry leaves turn red or purple. Many native shrubs like witch hazel, spirea, dogwoods, and ninebark have yellow or golden fall colour. The season for fall colour is nearly over so enjoy it while it lasts!

Over the last couple of weeks we've spent a few days working in the Village of Gagetown for a few different clients. These two 80+' Eastern White Pines recieved some light structure pruning and all the deadwood was removed to monitor their health in the future.

Friday Fact Corner: Happy Halloween! While many of us are thinking about ghouls and goblins (and candy), those of us with yards have another scary thought: can we rake up all the leaves before it snows? Depending on the species of trees in your neighbourhood, this process may start as early as August with Norway maples, and stretch well into November by the time the majority of the oak leaves that are going to fall have done so. Trees tend to drop their fruits and seeds as we...ll during this time, and fall storms dislodge loose branches and twigs - clean up can be quite daunting after a windy day! But there's good news if you only rake because you feel you ought to, not because of a by-law or lease agreement: a blanket of fallen leaves provides winter shelter for a broad diversity of animals. Leaves trap a layer of air between the grass and the soil, which insulates the ground and keeps frost from penetrating deeply into the soil. This is the perfect winter refuge for small mammals, amphibians, snakes, insects and other arthropods, and all of the tiny creatures that live in the soil itself. These hidden critters provide winter food for predators like owls, foxes, bobcats, and weasels. It's not just animals that benefit from a warm blanket of leaves over the ground. Trees and other plants have the majority of their fine, delicate roots in the first 15 cm of soil. Deep, penetrating frost can hurt their roots and cause them to decline or die, and this is especially the case for newly-planted trees. For the sake of our urban forest, leave some leaves on your lawn if you can. If it isn't practical or allowed where you live, make sure to mulch your trees before the frost, and if you have the space, consider making a "winter refuge" for local animals. A small pile of leaves around a log or a rock, away from streetlights or roads, will help out local animals and can be cleared away easily in the spring.

Friday Fact Corner: This Austrian pine (Pinus nigra) looks like it needs to blow its runny nose and the cause is the same - it's caught a bug. Rather than a seasonal cold though, it's an actual insect causing the problem. Bark beetles, feeding on the inner bark as both larvae and adults, prompts an aggressive defense response from conifers, who flush their pitch tubes full of sticky resin to trap and suffocate the offending insects. The pitch contains terpenes that work to st...erilize the site too, to ward against fungal infection, and make them distasteful to other insects that might otherwise try to eat the sticky, glue-like resin. So why is resinosis (the buildup of sap or pitch) a sign of stress in a tree, if what it's doing is helping itself? A little bit of resinosis, especially in the summer when the sap is thinner, isn't a cause for concern, but when the whole trunk is covered like this, it's a problem. Making pitch is an energetic activity that consumes a lot of water and sugar the tree could otherwise use to grow, so by covering its bark in sap, the tree is wasting a lot of precious resources. If the sap is leaking from multiple sites like this, it's indicative of a systemic infection: that is, the bark beetle infestation is so bad that the tree is trying to flush out its entire trunk to get rid of the insects. Secondary infections are very common with systemic infections, and plenty of fungi and disease will be happy to attack this tree in its weakened state. Resinosis can be a useful indicator of pest and disease presence - sap discharge from the base of a fir or spruce is one of the easiest ways to detect for shoestring root rot (Armillaria ostoyae) when the fruiting bodies aren't present. Gummosis (the production of jelly-like gum rather than sticky sap) is a similar phenomenon that occurs in deciduous trees, especially fruit trees in the Rose family. Gummosis in cherries is often a precursor of black knot infection, as the tree tries to push out the infection before the black fruiting bodies appear. If you see sap or gum discharge on your trees and you're concerned, give us a call - we'll get to the bottom of what's troubling your trees!

Friday Fact Corner: For this species spotlight, let's take a look at Finland's national tree, the European white birch (Betula pendula). Also called silver, warty, or East Asian white birch, this medium-sized tree grows all over Europe and across northern Asia, into China and Siberia, and has been introduced as a landscape plant in North America and Australia. Beloved by landscape designers for its striking white bark and long, hanging branches, it is a common urban tree, par...ticularly in cooler climates where birches tend to do better. How do you tell these birches apart from our native species? First is the bark - it has white, papery bark so it's very east to tell from yellow birch, which has metallic, bronze bark. If the leaves are out, you can tell it from our native white birch because the leaf tip comes to a narrow taper rather than a simple point. For grey birch, the base of the leaf where it joint the petiole is almost completely flat, but for European white birch it joins at a point making a V shape. As well, the bark of European river birch peels off in extremely thin, wispy sections unlike native white birch that comes away in long sheets. Grey birch bark peels only a little if at all, and has more dark markings than either white birches. European white birch faces a lot of the same challenges as our native birches do in the urban setting, though it tolerates heat and drought better. It unfortunately has no defense against bronze birch borer, a native insect that lays its eggs in the wood of birch trees. European white birch is also attacked by birch leafminers, aphids, and gypsy moth, and these insects seem to prefer them to our native birches. As well, their hanging branches collect ice and snow very easily, so a tree that has not been pruned carefully may split under a heavy ice load. White European white birches are lovely trees in the right setting, it's good to know what challenges you can expect if you want to add one to your property. We are always happy to recommend species for your next planting project!

A little preview of the incredible photos Jason Nugent Photography has taken on site with us this fall. It was a pleasure working with him and can't recommend his services enough! . . . .... #treecologic #supportlocal #localtalent #checkthatmorningsun#goldenhour See more