Tree News

I'm getting reports from farther south that fall webworms are active in their favorite trees: Pecans. Hyphantria cunea is not particularly damaging to trees, but the webs are considered unsightly in the landscape. The insect is a leaf-feeder and does not directly injur other parts of the host plant. I don't recommend any treatment. By the time the webs are noticed, the caterpillars probably have had their fill of leaves. Other trees considered delicious are persimmon, black cherry, Yoshino cherry, sourwood, sweetgum, willow, and red mulberry.

After a dry and dull 2007, it looks as if this year's growing season is commencing with a grand fireworks display. Yoshino Cherry trees are blooming in one of the fullest and consistent displays in recent memory. Just about any asian cherry cultivar or hybrid is glaringly obvious right now. Even the sides of normally drab highway buffers are sprinkled with lavender and nearly-white flowers. The Yoshino Cherry is the famous tree species in Washington DC, common on US Capitol grounds and around the Library of Congress. In 1909 and again in 1912, the city of Tokyo sent thousands of Japanese cherries to Washington. It is known as Somei-yoshino in Japan, a hybrid of unknown origin that was first introduced in Tokyo in 1872. Atlanta blogger Judi has a weeping cherry ornamental that is in the spirit too.

For those searching for information on white blooming trees in Atlanta, there are several showy woody plants that are flowering right now: Bradford pear trees are finishing, and now starting to push their leaves. Wild pears are still flowering. Dogwood trees are beginning to open up their flower buds, but this will take at least two weeks to get going Star magnolias are finishing up. White flowering cherry trees are just starting to open their flower buds.

Every tree-loving Atlantan knows about the Cherry Blossom Festival. Many have even attended the annual spring event in Macon, GA . The event celebrates the seasonal flowering of Yoshino cherry trees , and has been around for 24 years attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors during its 10-day stretch. The Yoshino cherries, though, are in trouble. Macon residents, and the Macon City forester Mike Huffman, are well aware that this species of cherry is not a long-lived tree in middle Georgia. In fact, most of the 350,000 Yoshinos (yes, that many!) throughout Macon were all planted about about 35 years ago. This means that many of the trees are in varying stages of environmentally enduced decline , succumbing to the hot, dry summers of the region. The Cherry Blossom Festival board has asked the city to begin monitoring the cherry tree population - possibly using GPS tracking for monitoring, routine inspections, and citizen education for the care of privately owned trees. The Festi...