Garden Detective

Ever wonder what happens to the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree after the holidays? It doesn't get kicked to the curb like mine does. It doesn't even get turned into mulch. No, the behemoth evergreen gets turned into a house.

Tishman Speyer, the company that owns and operates Rockefeller Center, once again will mill lumber from the 80th Rockefeller Center tree -- an 80-foot Norway spruce...

In last weekend's column, I misidentified reader Tom Marren's tree as a wild plum, when in fact it's a trifoliate orange. Also called a hardy orange, the tree bears a similarity to the wild plum in that it's very thorny and produces golf ball-sized fruit that starts out green. That's all I was able to ascertain from the early-season, close-up photo Marren sent, but as it turns out, if I had inspected...

Picture this: You're walking through a forest. No, you're admiring your neighbor's landscape. Or, wait -- you're on vacation and you can't identify any of the local trees. Regardless, you no longer have to sift through aboriculture encyclopedias trying to figure out exactly what it was you saw. Scientists have developed a mobile app to identify plants and trees simply by photographing a leaf with...

Have you seen the elms of East Hampton? The Cultural Landscape Foundation has, and it's included them in its 2010 list of the 12 most extradorinary trees in the country and Puerto Rico.

The trees on the list, many of which are endangered, also include a 2-century-old tulip poplar  in Washington, D.C., and 4,000 cherry trees in New Jersey's Essex County Branch Brook Park. Also honored...

Surprised to find this over the weekend: Looks like a partially blooming Forsythia, but I don't have any Forsythia. It's actually a Euonymus burning bush with a gift from a squirrel or bird planted beneath it.

I'm guessing it came from my neighbor's Forsythia, which you can see blooming on the other side of the fence.

 Since the Euonymus isn't doing anything exciting right now,...

As if snow and sleet weren't bad enough, ice is the devil in the bad-for-trees trifecta. When weak branches are covered with ice, they can easily be ripped out by wind or simply fall from the weight. This poses a danger to the homes, cars, power lines and people below, and opens up a gaping wound in the tree from which it may not recover.

So it's important to evaluate trees on your property...

It's icky out -- yes, that's a meteorological term -- with wet sloshy stuff falling from the sky. What is that? Sleet? Not quite sure. But it's cold and it's wet, and you know what that means? Time to head outside.

Shovel up that mess. There isn't that much of it, but when you're cleaning up the snow that fell overnight, pile it onto perennial beds (as long as you haven't salted). It will...

Forecasters are predicting another foot of snow will hit Long Island, starting tomorrow. I still haven't recovered from the last hit. Though my walkways and streets are all clear, there are snow mounds several feet high all over the yard. They were partly formed from natural snow drifts that occurred during the post-Christmas Snowpocalypse and partly from the deliberate dumping of shoveled snow,...

If you know me, you know I won't tout a product unless I've tried it myself. And I don't usually write about a product I tried unless I actually like it. That's why you don't see many negative reviews coming from me. It's not that I love everything, it's that I don't waste your time with stuff that doesn't work.

So, in the wake of this year's Vacation All-Natural Anti-Drought Plant Treatment...