daltontrees

I was involved in one last year, the vandal nearly got a custodial sentence but got off with a lng stretch of community service yet. It aint over yet, and the criminal case may move on soon to a civil case. It involved some heavy-duty valuation arguments. I disagree with everyone on here that's saying don't get involved. Tell your clietn what your abilites and limitations are and let them decide if yu would be the right kind of representation. Then get a brief and stick to it. The case might be complicated but the usiness of getting involved or not isn't.

Nicely done but everyone's got one like that. Just my opinion but you won't stand ot at all witha logo like that. I thought you were on to something with your original logo. I agreed with the comment about the garden looking like railway sleepers (concrete ones!) but I muucked about with it a bit (see below) and if you're design ethos is to integrate vegetation, fencing and other garden furniture and the building materials of the clietn's house in a pallette of colours, this might say it, as it hints at decking, lawn, paths or slabbing and whatever black is (could be the street). I skewed the perspective sideways because straight-on did look a bit Habitat Homes-ish. I widened the H and L in the building to make the proportions look a little more relaistic, but I thought it was clever to use the spaces as you did to get 3 windows and a door. My version is a bit rough, I spent 5 minutes on it, but if I was you I'd work on that idea. Just my opinion, good luck with it. If your logo shows imagination, people wioll seek you out. Unimaginative logo, unimaginative landscaper.

I couldn't see the different shaped leaves from the photo, but M. alba 'Pendula' is a good shout. Particularly the young smooth pink bark. It's pretty common as a lawn specimen.

I did say cultivar 'Youngii' whch has a variety of manifestations some of which have pink stems, large leaves when juvenile, more entire leaf margins than pendula and more akin to utilis, plus white twigs. Looking at the picture again I see twigs at the top which are almost white. The stem is pink. I may be wrong, but I'd put money on it not being Beech.

Sorry to have to disagree witht eh beech camp, but I reckon this is Betula pendula 'Youngii'

I'm confused. If Alnus can create better plant growth conditions because it can fix Nitrogen (with F. alni), why does it create Phosphorus poor conditions? i.e. if it accumulates both N and P why and how does it make N available to other plants but not P? Sorry, complex question, but I don't have access to Jakobsen et al.

Not quite the same, both have had substantial limbs removed. Am I Imagining it or is there a strong correlation between the wounds and the blackening? The Filed Maple seems to have some callus formation over the wound but if cambial activity is weak the limb removals would be disastrous for the tissue just below them.

There's a S. sargentiana at Harcourt Arboretum I saw in teh summer. Here's pics. It was grafted onto what I think was plain S. aucuparia. Hence the last two pics showing suckering foliage typical of S. a.

Strictly, Taphrina betulina.

Can be anything from light yellow to dark chestnut brown, even on the same twig, can be smooth to downy (but not onteh same twig).

Sure looks like goat willow to me. Complete with Melampsora leaf rust (Willow Rust).

Sorry if I seemed rude, but the guy did ask about pruning and the whole job looks like it would only take about an hour.

Not quite what I was thinking, the Highways Act doesn't apply in Muirhead. We don't even have highways up here, we have 'roads', and the legislation is the Roads Scotland Act 1984 and unlike the english Act it doesn't allow for the recovery of costs. Where a hedge, tree or shrub overhangs a road so as to ... (b) obstruct or interfere with ... (ii) the light from a public lamp ... the roads authority may, by notice served either on the owner of the hedge, tree or shrub, or on the occupier of the land on which it is growing, require him within 28 days from the date of service of the notice to carry out such work on the hedge, tree or shrub as is necessary to remove the cause of danger, obstruction or interference. I just noticed the word 'overhangs', so if the tree blocks a street lamp that is not within the public road, it cannot come within the Act because it does not overhang the road. Strictly speaking ...

As far as I can see, unless the Council cuts a tree back form a lamp due to imminent danger there is no financial penalty for not complying with a notice.

I have worked on a few. Around Glasgow almost every open-grown Gunnii was damaged badly by a cold winter in 2009, and many were finished off by another cold winter in 2010. I couldn't prove it but the ones that fared better had vigorous growth beforehand and a decent crown size. I'd go further and speculate that those that had been topped before and re-grown had relatively thick stems for their crown volume. A few did come back with juvenile foliage but these struggled for a year then gave up. I can't see from the pictures but yours looks like it's been 'done' before. A long cold winter is being forecast by the Met Office, so cutting back hard now won't leave the tree much chance. Personally I wouldn't be suggesting that the pruning required by the client is anywhere near best-practice, but since it has been ordered by the Council there are few alternatives. Leaving the protion of crown that is behind the lamp is a possibility, encouraging the tree to grow inwards into the garden. But maybe they want a more compact tree anyway, so cutting it back is what should be done. If you can leave long stubs on each substem rather than taking it back to one big knuckle it might be OK. What was the old rule of thumb, a length of 3 to 4 times the diameter of the cut substem? Maybe just warn the customer that there is a significant chance of the tree not fully recovering?

I just meant are you looking for advice on pruning or whether to get involved in the job.

Eucalyptus is very sensitive to harsh pruning in winter in the west of Scotland. Is the tree near Muirhead (your location)? By the way, if you're not the Council Roads Dept., spending time pondering the ins and outs of whether you can take your would-be customers' word for it that it's an adopted road and that they have to cut the tree back form the light seems to me a bit of a waste of time.

My guess is Rhus, the only one I know is Rhus typhina, which has some very odd autumn colouring effects. Might be that.

It certainly looks like a hybrid of the type first appearing in late 1700s. A 700 year old oak in good growing conditions wold have a diameter of around 2.9 metres. If it's that big you have got the scientific discovery of the year as it would have to be a natural hybrid.

Where was it, it looks like it wouldn't stand the cold?

Yes, it has te look of Sophora tetraptera about the foliage.

It would have been too easy and a bit negative to say 'if you have to ask, don't do it' but we all have to start somewhere and my first few reports (heavily caveated) were written an a tree contractor without any formal arboricultural training. The customer (not a client, note) was in no doubt that i was only giving helpful advice to the extent of my knowledge and experience and that I wasn't qualified or insured. Come to think of it, I didn't charge for them. Invariably got the jobs or on some occasions saved the odd tree from unnecessary risk-averse felling. Nice to see those trees 10 years on without crushed cars or tombstones beneath them... not so nice to see the other contractors that advised felling of the trees driving around in new trucks looking in love with themselves. Names withheld to protect the guilty.

Hold on! Are we still talking about heaven?

Yes. You'll get your fee paid in heaven.

The job's yours. 6 guys, 4 weeks. So if 2 guys are on traffic management, I suppose you're bang on.