We service the metro Richmond area and its surrounding counties which are: Henrico, Hanover, New Kent, Charles City, Chesterfield, Petersburg, Goochland, King William, King and Queen, Louisa, Westmoreland, Northumberland, Lancaster, Richmond, Essex, Middlesex, Powhatan, Amelia, Dinwiddie, Prince George, and Nottoway. View more details on the areas served by our Richmond office.

Arborists in our Richmond office are committed to helping local residents and businesses maintain beautiful, healthy trees and shrubs. Our arborists are experts in diagnosing and treating tree and shrub problems specific to the Richmond area. Plus, with access to Bartletts global resources and advanced scientific research facility, we can provide customers with benefits that just arent available from other Richmond tree services.

Bartlett Tree Experts offers a variety of services to help our customers maintain beautiful, healthy trees and shrubs. No matter the size or scope of your tree service or shrub care needs, we want to work with you to protect your landscape investment. Access a complete list of the tree services we provide in the Richmond, VA area.

Tree Inspections Arborists check the overall health of trees, look for infestations, and identify structural problems.

Insect and Disease Management Bartlett uses an integrated approach to suppress pests and manage tree diseases on your property.

Plant Analysis and Diagnostics Contact an arborist to determine the cause of a plant health problem or to identify a pest infestation.

Fertilization and Soil Management To thrive, trees and shrubs require a healthy blend of nutrients in the soil where they live.

Lightning Protection For high value trees, lightning protection systems can minimize the risk of damage from a strike.

Pruning Pruning is periodically required to improve the health and appearance of woody landscape plants.

The TCIA Accreditation "seal of approval" helps consumers find tree care companies that have been inspected and accredited based on adherence to industry standards for quality and safety, maintenance of trained, professional staff, and dedication to ethics and quality in business practices. Through research, technology, and education, the International Society of Arboriculture (ISA) promotes the professional practice of arboriculture and fosters a greater worldwide awareness of the benefits of trees. The Board-Certified Master Arborist credential is designed for arborists who have reached the pinnacle of their profession.

Read more:
Bartlett Tree Experts: Tree Service and Shrub Care in Richmond, VA

Fall gardens represent the culmination of months of human work, months of plant growth. As such, you need to make a conscious effort to enjoy them to the fullest. While the spring landscape holds the seeds (literally) of a fresh start and thus carries a certain excitement of its own, the garden in autumn holds a trump card: it's called the "harvest," the sights, smells and tastes of which are not to be missed for anything.

But the autumn also brings with it some chores that we must perform before the arrival of winter. Below is an FAQ that will:

You've had a long summer of mowing the lawn, pruning shrubs watering trees, maintaining your perennials, etc. You're ready for a break, come autumn, right? Well, not so fast! There are a number of recommended tasks to perform in the fall garden. I'll get the most obvious (deceptively obvious) one out of the way first, even though you'll have to hold off on this one until after you've performed most of the other tasks:

Q.-- What is the most easily overlooked chore in fall gardens?

OK, here's another task that is not at all obvious (at least to beginners). Everyone knows that you have to water grass and other plants in summer. Anyone who doesn't already know this will find out soon: try skipping on watering your lawn some summer, and you'll wind up with dead grass. But what about when summer's heat passes? I deal with watering trees and shrubs later in this FAQ, but regarding watering lawns, click the following link:

Q.-- With all the snow we'll be getting this winter, I don't have to water my autumn lawn, do I?

Watering the lawn is one thing. But what about mowing in fall. Do you finally get a break from mowing in autumn? And if not, the question is:

Q.-- How long into the fall season should I continue to mow the lawn?

Yet another question about autumn lawn care follows. Lawns are a lot of work, aren't they? That's why I'm all for killing grass to convert lawn areas into planting beds for perennials and shrubs. But if you're a lawn holdout, you'll want the answer to this question:

Q.-- How high should grass be cut in autumn?

More here:
Fall Gardens - Tree, Shrub and Lawn Care in Autumn

Unlike the previous year, 2013 started without any major drama for law enforcement officers but turned into a year seeing eight murders, of which the police solved four. In 2012, the number of murders was 11.

Valentine's Day murder

Four days after Valentine's Day, Ronald Galea, 65, of Birkirkara, was shot outside his meat factory in Hal Far. At around 4:45pm on Monday 18 February, Galea left the Continental Meat Company - a meat factory he owned - and drove off in his Ford Mondeo. Upon exiting the vehicle to lock the gate, a hooded man approached the victim and shot him eight times in the back and head.

A passer-by heard the shots and saw Galea fall to the ground. Immediately calling the police, the eyewitness informed investigators the hooded killer had left the scene in a silver Toyota Vitz. Moments later an ambulance arrived on site but Ronald Galea had lost his fight with death.

Investigators believed that unknown to Galea, his killer had been waiting for him. The weapon used was a 9mm semi-automatic handgun. Two days later, the police held a man in his 30s who worked in the same sector as the victim, to assist them in their investigations. Galea was owed substantial amounts of money, however the credit was all related to his business.

The police did not arraign anybody over the killing.

The gangland saga

Three months later, gunshots claimed the life of another man in the first of four gangland vendetta murders. After pure chance saved him from a car bomb attempt back in 2012, at 11am on 31 May, luck ran out for Paul Degabriele, known as 'Is-Suldat', when he was shot outside the Enemalta customer care office in Belt il-Hazna, Marsa.

The 49-year-old from Fgura, left a coffee bar and entered into his Toyota Hilux when his assailant drove by in a white van. CCTV footage taken from nearby buildings did not confirm if this was a drive-by shooting, or whether the assailant emerged from the car to kill Degabriele.

Witnesses saw a person with bloodstained clothes walking away from the scene. The white van, identified as the assailant's vehicle, was later found burnt in Hamrun.

Link:
Gangland vendettas, family feuds, and blackmail

Heres a word on mistletoe, for your holiday reading pleasure, from science humorist Alex Reshavov. This post was originally published in 2011. Enjoy!

The quaint holiday decoration you invited into your home and hung over your doorways is a vicious parasite that leeches nutrients from innocent host trees. It is riddled with cytotoxins, and its seeds are dispersed via bird crap. Merry Christmas.

Pretty parasite

Makes for a far nicer centerpiece than a jar of tapeworms. Image Credit: Kenraiz.

Not all parasites are creepy-crawly worms or protozoans. Some are cheerful-looking shrubs with dainty white berries. Viscum album is one species of mistletoe*, a group of parasitic flowering plants in the order Santalales. It is an obligate hemiparasite. This means that while it does not derive all of its sustenance from a host plant, it does need some interaction with the host to reach its mature state. As a hemiparasite, mistletoe need only steal from its host trees xylem, the transport tissue that handles water and water-soluble nutrients. It is gracious enough to eschew the hosts phloem, which transports sugars. This renders it less of a pathogen, as the host loses water but not food to the parasite.

Gracious host

Viscin has worked it magic. Image Credit: Christer Johansson.

Mistletoe bears a fruit that some birds find delicious. The seeds of these berries are covered in a gluey substance called viscin. Birds eat the berries and then fly off to another tree where they eventually expel the digested remains of the fruit, its viscin coating still adhering to the seeds. The sticky seeds cling to the new branch and begin to grow. As it enlarges, the plant forms a peg that drills through the host branch and eventually reaches the xylem. Now the parasite develops its haustorium, a root-like appendage that allows it to siphon nutrients from the host.

Coming to America

Viscum album is native to Europe and parts of Asia. It is the original Christmas mistletoe, a leafy green shrub adorned with white berries. It has a wide host range, infecting over 450 tree species, including both hardwood and coniferous varieties. So, yes, hypothetically your Christmas mistletoe could attack your Christmas tree (were it still planted in the ground, of course).

Read more here:
Mistletoe’s parasitic kiss

Allow an arborist from our Tucson office to provide you with preventive tree care and landscape management services to the greater Tucson area, including Green Valley, Sahuarita, Vail, Marana, Oro Valley, Sun City, and Saddlebrooke. View more details on the areas served by our Tucson office.

Arborists in our Tucson office are committed to helping local residents and businesses maintain beautiful, healthy trees and shrubs. Our arborists are experts in diagnosing and treating tree and shrub problems specific to the Tucson area. Plus, with access to Bartletts global resources and advanced scientific research facility, we can provide customers with benefits that just arent available from other Tucson tree services.

Bartlett Tree Experts offers a variety of services to help our customers maintain beautiful, healthy trees and shrubs. No matter the size or scope of your tree service or shrub care needs, we want to work with you to protect your landscape investment. Access a complete list of the tree services we provide in the Tucson area.

Cabling and Bracing Cables and brace rods can help reduce the risk of failure of weak branches and multiple stems.

Insect and Disease Management Bartlett uses an integrated approach to suppress pests and manage tree diseases on your property.

Pruning Pruning is periodically required to improve the health and appearance of woody landscape plants.

Fertilization and Soil Management To thrive, trees and shrubs require a healthy blend of nutrients in the soil where they live.

Plant Analysis and Diagnostics Contact an arborist to determine the cause of a plant health problem or to identify a pest infestation.

Tree Removal Expert removals can be performed for a number of reasons ranging from dying trees to new construction.

The TCIA Accreditation "seal of approval" helps consumers find tree care companies that have been inspected and accredited based on adherence to industry standards for quality and safety, maintenance of trained, professional staff, and dedication to ethics and quality in business practices. Through research, technology, and education, the International Society of Arboriculture (ISA) promotes the professional practice of arboriculture and fosters a greater worldwide awareness of the benefits of trees. The Board-Certified Master Arborist credential is designed for arborists who have reached the pinnacle of their profession.

Read the original post:
Bartlett Tree Experts: Tree Service and Shrub Care in Tucson, AZ

Mistletoe is a parasite that attaches itself to trees.

FRANK ANDERSON KRT

Mistletoe comes to the holiday season with thousands of years of tradition behind it. It appears in Norse myths. The Druids thought it was magical and brought it into pagan rituals and it was used for its medicinal attributes.

Kissing under the mistletoe, probably for reasons relating to fertility, grew out of 16th-century England.

Some forms of these traditions are still active today. Mistletoe is used around the world for medicinal purposes. We incorporate it in our holiday decorations and have fun stealing an opportunistic kiss where it hangs.

American mistletoe, Phoradendren leucarpum, with its leathery green leaves and white berries, is native throughout the Southeast, north to New York and Illinois and west to New Mexico. Others species grow in the western U.S., Europe, the tropics, Africa and Australia.

The evergreen plant grows in shrub-like balls one to three feet in diameter suspended high up on the branches of hardwood trees. It is particularly visible in December when trees have dropped their leaves. The green ball-like growth is quite pretty as it decorates seasonally barren branches.

That does not mean you necessarily want mistletoe growing in your backyard pecan or oak tree.

Mistletoe produces tiny, inconspicuous yellow flowers in fall. Plants are either male or female. Male flowers produce pollen which insects and wind transport to female flowers.

After pollination, small whitish berries develop in early to mid winter. Certain birds are fond of eating the berries, after which they excrete the sticky seeds. Some of the seeds affix to the bark on tree branches.

See more here:
Gardening | Mistletoe has tradition, but it’s also a parasite

Our Plymouth office provides professional tree care services to the entire Twin Cities metro area. We have offices in both Plymouth and Bloomington to cover all of the Minneapolis and St. Paul suburbs. View more details on the areas served by our Twin Cities office.

Arborists in our Twin Cities office are committed to helping local residents and businesses maintain beautiful, healthy trees and shrubs. Our arborists are experts in diagnosing and treating tree and shrub problems specific to the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. Plus, with access to Bartletts global resources and advanced scientific research facility, we can provide customers with benefits that just arent available from other Minneapolis-St. Paul tree services.

Bartlett Tree Experts offers a variety of services to help our customers maintain beautiful, healthy trees and shrubs. No matter the size or scope of your tree service or shrub care needs, we want to work with you to protect your landscape investment. Access a complete list of the tree services we provide in the Twin Cities area.

Cabling and Bracing Cables and brace rods can help reduce the risk of failure of weak branches and multiple stems.

Insect and Disease Management Bartlett uses an integrated approach to suppress pests and manage tree diseases on your property.

Storm Damage Some basic procedures can help reduce the risk of damage to your trees from severe storms.

Fertilization and Soil Management To thrive, trees and shrubs require a healthy blend of nutrients in the soil where they live.

Pruning Pruning is periodically required to improve the health and appearance of woody landscape plants.

Tree Removal Expert removals can be performed for a number of reasons ranging from dying trees to new construction.

The TCIA Accreditation "seal of approval" helps consumers find tree care companies that have been inspected and accredited based on adherence to industry standards for quality and safety, maintenance of trained, professional staff, and dedication to ethics and quality in business practices. Through research, technology, and education, the International Society of Arboriculture (ISA) promotes the professional practice of arboriculture and fosters a greater worldwide awareness of the benefits of trees. The Board-Certified Master Arborist credential is designed for arborists who have reached the pinnacle of their profession.

Link:
Bartlett Tree Experts: Tree Service and Shrub Care in Plymouth, MN

6 hours ago Juniper berries.

Forest Research scientists have collected berries from juniper bushes across Great Britain as part of the UK National Tree Seed Project overseen by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. The berries are sent to the Millennium Seed Bank at Kew for conservation and further research. Juniper, one of three conifers native to Britain, is declining due to changes in land use, disease and a long and complicated reproductive cycle.

Scientists from Forest Research, the Forestry Commission's research agency, and volunteers have been scrambling over challenging terrain in nineteen sites across Great Britain from Bulford, Wiltshire to Bitch Craig in the Scottish Borders to collect berries from juniper bushes in a bid to protect them from further decline.

The collection is part of the UK National Tree Seed Project overseen by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. The berries are sent to the Millennium Seed Bank at Kew for conservation and further research. The UK National Tree Seed Project and Millennium Seed Bank have been made possible by 100,000 in support from players of People's Postcode Lottery.

Although there is a lot of juniper in the northern hemisphere, it is declining in Great Britain, particularly in southern England. Rabbits like to eat the seedlings and at some sites the bushes are smothered by brambles and bracken. When moors are burned for grouse shooting it also makes it harder for juniper to survive. The berries often contain large numbers of empty seeds, which may be due an inbalance between male and female bushes in local populations.

Dr Shelagh McCartan of Forest Research who led the berry hunt explains the importance of preserving this native tree:

"Although the juniper berries that flavour our gin traditionally do not come from the UK, and it is rather a rather scraggly, unprepossessing bush; it must be preserved as it is an important part of the Great British landscape. It is one of three native conifers and plays host to about forty fungi and insects, which are dependent on juniper for part or all of their life-cycles. Typically only 6 or so juniper seedlings out of 10,000 seeds survive the first year."

In northern England and Scotland, some juniper populations are under threat from a fungus-like pathogen, Phytophthora austrocedrae.

Frances Graham, Wildlife Conservation Officer of Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority says:

"The UK National Tree Seed Project is an opportunity to safe-guard juniper populations against future threats."

Read the original here:
Protecting juniper from a berry uncertain future

You have taken very good care of our trees and shrubs. Thank you for your professional advice and care. Jessica B., Caldwell, NJ

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The Yoshino Cherry trees looked like a pink cloud outside our windows. Thanks for helping to keep my trees healthy and happy. Emilee H., Raleigh, NC

The neighborswere so pleased with the service and work your crew performedthe work far exceeded their expectations. Susan B., Grand Rapids, MI

My trees are the healthiest they have ever been and are the most beautiful additions to my yard! Thank you for everything! Priscilla H., Dallas, TX

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I am very satisfied with the service, and your suggestions are very useful. The staff are great and it is always a pleasure to deal with you. Jane B., Burnaby, BC

Original post:
Bartlett Tree Experts: The Leader in Residential and ...

Trees are important in every landscape -- big or small, urban or rural, cottage or contemporary. But because trees live a lifetime or more (and often cost so much), they can be intimidating to choose and maintain. We have advice on selecting the best trees for your landscape and caring for them once they're planted. Nearly every yard has room for small trees, and they add character to the landscape. Choose from some of these varieties as a starting point. Other good garden choices include elegant, beautiful Japanese maples, which have become a hit with gardeners in the past few years; conifers; and flowering trees. Review the choices to find one that meets your landscape needs. The first year is often the most critical in a tree's life; learn essential steps to protect your new trees, particularly in winter. Once your trees are off to a good start, continue to promote their health: We have the advice you need. In addition to offering shade and structure, trees can do unique things. For example, a row of small espaliered trees can be trained into decorative patterns and serve as a living fence; we teach you how.

Link:
Trees - Better Homes and Gardens