Bought this house 5 years ago and very grateful to the previous owners for planting this mountain ash. Its center from the pool and back patio so its always right in your face. So beautiful

This was supposed to grow taller, it has decided to get very wide this year instead. How and when should I trim this?

We have several places we visit every year to look at postfire recovery from the CZU/LNU Complex fires, including this place in the CZU Complex Fire area in the Santa Cruz mountains, in old-growth and cutover redwood-Douglas fir forest, with the typical tanoak-bay-bigleaf maple-coast live oak friends scattered throughout.

This is the second really strong year for Ceanothus growth, and many sprouts from the stump sprouting tanoak and bay are as much as a meter taller than I am now. You can also see the sprouts from the latent buds on redwood, some of which seem to have sat dormant for a couple years while others started the next year after the fire.

We're taught that fire burns in a mosaic, but increasingly as forests dry out due to climate change, fire is burning hotter and a more catastrophic burn may occur in a place. In my post of the flagged Doug-firs you can see much more mortality on the slopes, but here in this place there is much less 'destruction'.

These wind-flagged Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) are in little gullies draining to the beach about 8-9 meters below these bluffs. To the east of the Pacific shore, the Santa Cruz Mountains rise and it is possible this is where the seeds of these trees originated.

In the last image, it is easy to see the gully cutting down, and down through a geological feature known as marine terrace, which indicates the old sea level and remnants of a broad, shallow seafloor ~80-100,000 years ago. The first hill rising towards the mountains in the middle distance is another, older marine terrace, perhaps ~250,000 years old. The charred trunks at the foot of this terrace were killed by the 2020 CZU complex fire, the effects can be seen as you zoom in uphill. As we get closer to the mountains, another marine terrace exists (but is not visible here), and is about 300,000 years old, indicating sea level at that time. On the sides of the Santa Cruz Mountains you can see hundreds of standing dead Douglas-fir, killed by the CZU Complex fire.

I have another series of images (Edit: here) where we've been tracking the fire recovery in the redwood forest on the other side of the ridge to the south.

I’ve got this cool trio at the back of my yard. I’ve never seen anything quite like them before. I know that one is a pine but I’m curious if anyone could tell me what the other two are.

super cool find for me but not so cool for the plant. what a tragic life :’(

I planted a buckeye maybe 12 years ago and on Friday there were many dozens of buckeyes on the tree.

I went out today and there are just empty husks on the ground. The yard is littered with walnuts from 6 large walnut trees, the weirdos seem to prefer the buckeyes.

A clump of giant sequoias, probably 175ft tall. I’ve known they would come down eventually due to the nearby house that it’s currently taking over, but it’s a sad day.

Not sure if these all line up, but thought y'all might appreciate.

Hello all! Looking for some advice on what to do for this tree in my front yard.

Pretty sure it is a Silver Birch (but likely you all may know better than I), but this tree has had a crack starting near the base and spiraling its way up the trunk. Though the tree seems "healthy" to my unexpert eyes (gets lots of leaves and seeds every year) the depth and extent on the crack worries me and the tree leans toward the driveway.

Would it be best to cut it down now before it gets worse? Is there any way to salvage a tree with such a cracked trunk?

Thank you!

New growth on rhododendron looks a little off...

So, this is my mother's money tree. She is worried about it. Most of the stalks around the main stem seem dead. She thinks the pot is too small. She lives on Cape Cod in Massachusetts if that matters for climate. What should we do?

We recently purchased a home that has this huge apple tree in the back yard. The previous owners didn’t do any maintenance on the tree and it’s having a really hard time. All the lower branches have no leaves and it dropped all the apples long before they were ripe. Several branches appear to just be dead.

I can’t afford to have a professional come out and trim it, so I was hoping for some advice on how to care for and trim this tree. Any help you can give is greatly appreciated!

My in-laws’ tree. Husband has tried explaining that they need to get rid of the mulch volcano, but they don’t believe him. Their reasoning:
“Our landscaper did it, and he knows what he’s doing.”
“All the other trees in the neighborhood have that much mulch, and they can’t all be wrong!”

Meanwhile, their next door neighbor’s tree is rotting from the bottom up due to the mulch monstrosity.

Old farm house outside of Coldwater, MI. Amazing how it has remained intact for all of these years.

Trying to decide what to do with a white oak next to our house/garage. We had two arborists out (both TRAQ, I think) who did Level 1 visual inspections and leaned toward removal, but also offered services if we wanted to try to retain/maintain (mainly pruning/deadwood removal). I have been trying to find the structural roots because one arborist was pretty concerned there was serious root rot, but have not found anything important yet. Below are my ChatGPT-curated notes.

Mature white oak, ~21" DBH, ~60 ft tall, South Central upstate NY. Buried root flare, possibly 8–12+ inches from old grade changes/construction ~40 years ago. Basal/butt decay concentrated at/just below former grade, roughly 25–30% of circumference, with several 3-4" cavities and wet, punky wood. No lean, no root-plate movement, no basal cracks, and little/no hollow response when sounded. Crown is somewhat thin with 3–4 larger dead branches, stable for several years. I prefer retention if defensible.

Is there a reason I haven't found any structural roots in 6-10 inches of digging right around the base? Indicative of a deeply buried root flare? A Sign that the roots are no more? Any other thoughts on what I should do?

I know little about trees. Any help is appreciated. I am afraid this will break off and damage our house, but we will miss the tree if I have to fill take it down.

These are my white oak species that I grew from acorns two or three years ago and promptly forgot about. Of the roughly 30 that I planted most of them have arrow straight roots.

These ones do not. I put them in small pots and left them for far too long :(

Are these individuals salvageable or are they doomed to girdle themselves? Can I at least make them into bonsai trees? How can I stop my boys from perishing?

Species included are Q. Alba, Q. Macrocarpa, Q. muehlenbergii, and Q. Bicolor

Can this young tree be saved?

Is the lean of the tree a problem? I wanted it to grow straight and tied it to the pole for some months. I thought I needed to remove it because it couldn't hold itself. Anything I can do to make him stand more in line?

Getting an arborist out to check this tree, and just start getting proactive maintenance on a regular basis if it's not already at the end of its lifespan (30-50 years in my area and my age guess is cautious) because does this look like a tree that you can maintain on your own?