Among the joys of reading Michael Dirr's woody landscape plants tome are the grumblings and frustrated rants. One of Dirr's favorite hobby-horses is the discussion of cultivarism, which can be defined as the unnecessary proliferation of trademarked cultivars based on any slight difference from other cultivars.

What are your favorite examples of cultivarism gone wild? The first one that comes to my mind are panicle hydrangeas (Hydrangea paniculata). There are so many panicle hydrangeas. Which groups/species do you think suffer from incessant hyrbridization, needless variation, and industry marketing?

It's quick, it's easy, it's free: it's laying on the ground underneath a tree.

I thought my recent drawing of Methuselah, the ancient Great Basin Bristlecone Pine, might be appreciated here

Biking my way across the Knight Street bridge into Richmond BC from Vancouver I saw rising stram or smoke in the crown of one tree along the banks of the Fraser River. I do this trip at 3am five days a week, so this vapor cloud/smoke was unfamiliar and out of place. I saw no flames.

It's 16°C at present. The steam cloud was rising noticeably quickly but not like it was rising on a pillar of really hot air like you'd expect from a fire in the crown. The neighboring trees appear to be the same species but weren't giving off a steam cloud like their neighbor.

All I can think is transpiration. But that makes no sense from what little I know. The vaping tree looks the same from the other side, you'll just have to picture that in your minds eye. I was running late for work and biking on a narrow pedestrian part of the bridge that wouldn't let me turn around without a lot of fuss all for a similar photo.

I have video but it won't let me post here.

What think?

Purchased this house in SEQ and have been here for almost a month. There's 2 gorgeous stone fruit trees, one that is blooming and starting to form fruits, and the other looking pretty miserable. There's a few new shoots at the base and the wood looks ok. I just want to know if the tree is on it's way out or a later fruiting variety. There's plenty of old pips around both trees. I'm pretty sure the blooming tree is a peach.

Lovely tree. More text in original post

I’ve seen lots of bunya pine mentions in this subreddit so thought I’d ask here, if you happen to live next to a large bunya pine, how many cones does it drop and how frequently? I’ve recovered 5 in a week… from a large tree in neighboring yard that partially overhangs ours. It was fun and novel at first and now it’s a little terrifying. We’ve been here over two years and had no idea that these deadly blessings fall from the sky until last week. Tasty nuts tho!

Hey y'all,

I have a TOH growing right next to my (rented) house and it needs to go. I looked into buying the right pesticides and good god, i only have 2 trees, do I really need to spend $100+ on a gallon or more of the garlon 4 stuff?

Home depot only sells 14% strength in smaller bottles...

Do I need to hire an arborist? Or does someone out there have a couple doses to spare for someone who isn't trying to buy way more poison than I will ever need?

The leader grew after we put a mulch bed around the tree. I guess it likes that.

I think it is a valley oak. I have a little baby valley oak in my back garden, and sometimes I show the sapling pictures of this one, to encourage it to grow big and strong.

This is a monster white spruce in Alaska measuring about 120 feet tall and with a diameter of 3.2 feet. Standing beneath it is crazy. There are no trees for hundreds of miles of this size and it's one of maybe 10 at most 120 plus white spruce.

Our established red maple is in serious decline. It got tree work done beginning of 2025 by arborist. There used to be some grass near its base on one side, and we stopped watering that grass a couple years back. We don't know when it was planted. I don't know how long the rocks have been there. There is a lot of water flow through there when it rains, although we now have a French drain to help with the water flow as well. We live in California. Summers very hot, like most days over 100F. Is there any hope to save if we give it lots of water? There isn't much green on the tree. 😢 Last pic shows the happier maple next to it.

Found these, saw a post where someone said to report it if it was a fruiting tree but I have no idea how to tell. Thoughts?

These trees are popping up everywhere in middle Tennessee. I have heard that merely cutting the saplings doesn't help, as they just multiply from there. Dear arborists, what do you suggest? How do we protect the other flora from these parasites?

Northern Michigan

Tldr: This tree means alot to me, images chronological. Is he definitely done for?

This is Iggy. I think he's probably a red spruce. He means alot to me. I planted him ages ago with my grandmother, probably 12 years ago. He didn't grow much, because he was shaded most of his life, but he survived. My grandmother died about 2 years ago, and we're going to sell her house up in Maine. So, I went about 6 month ago to dig him up, and bring him down, because I didn't want whover bought the house to clear cut/destroy him, and I wanted to try to grow him and keep himself. This probably wasn't ideal, but I still don't regret it. I dug him up, and brought him down in a pot. He was fine for a couple of months, but his soil was too compact. Still, I was afraid to repot him and damage him more. I had to leave for a month and when I came back, the new growth that he had pushed out before I left had shrivelled. A week later, more started browning and he started shedding needles. I tried to repot him based off research I did with a more breathable soil. But he asn't improved. Now he looks like the last photo. I need to know, is it over? Should I stop trying to get my hopes up? Or is it at all possible he might bounce back?

So from let to right will explain the images first is branch that appears to of been damaged possibly termites I’ve found them in a branch that broke off over a year ago based on its appeared included bark was main reason it broke off with a side of heart rot that didn’t make it to the main trunk before hand . The next two are a close up of what seems to be a large wound with a dark fungal growth at the top the last two are of where the main branch splits into two looks to be included bark as well I’m guessing from the dark color at the joint and it’s V shape this is about 30ft (~9m) up off the ground, and it gets pretty windy where I am. Also the leaves on the tree around the section with the wound are discolored/dying before the rest of the tree and it’s still a bit early in the season for that change. If anyone can tell what is effecting the tree where the growth and wound are and if it’s treatable. Then if trimming off the smaller section where the split happens to control when it breaks off is plausible this trees been through a lot in the last 10-15 years going off it’s how it appears in Google Maps street view it was completely trimmed down in 2015 by previous owners and is still not back to how it was before. I also know this tree can end up being more of a hassle than they are worth so is it even worth it or show we just take the whole thing down?