Let's Talk Plants!

By Robin Y Rivet, for Let's Talk Plants! October 2021. October is prime tree planting time. Suppose you’d like an evergreen with...

By Tim Clancy for Let's Talk Plants! September 2021. Tree Adoption Process Thank you for your interest in adopting a rescue tree from the...

By Robin Y Rivet. Ficus carica - edible fig: cross section showing syconium. Did you ever wonder why you don’t see flowers on fig trees?...

By Tim Clancy. One of my favorite trees these days is the silk oak, Grevillea robusta. I was fascinated by its flowers when I first saw...

By Robin Y Rivet. Is your neighborhood lined with large, mature street trees? The odds are against it. · Older communities once revered...

By Tim Clancy. I am sure most of you are familiar with the great storyteller Aesop and his fables. The most famous one being the The Hare...

By Robin Y Rivet. I’m ‘fessing up. I get too many calls to identify commonly cultivated tree species, but the task is daunting due to the...

Not long ago I received a call from an HOA resident who was distressed that the HOA board had decided to remove some trees. Well, they reall

The coronavirus is on everyone’s mind. COVID-19 has caused extreme loss of life - but few people understand what a virus is - and what it is

Imagine a natural, low-water garden blooming with the beautiful and unique flora of California native plants, attracting a large diversity

One of the best things about working with and studying trees is the availability of subjects. If you’re a doctor you wait for patients to

Bite down carefully. If it’s meltingly soft and syrupy, or spicy-sweet and crunchy, both textures might be ripe persimmons. The Oriental per

A good friend of mine owns a nursery in San Diego named South Coast Wholesale. One of his business ventures involves moving big trees. Somet

A global pandemic is forcing humans to consider their collective vulnerability, while humbled individuals are expected to hover in place - r

And now for something completely different. So, for whatever reason you can't venture out and admire trees. Yet you need to get your tree fi

The virus pandemic is creating tight budgets, but more time to garden. Planting new trees should not be costly.

Although April showers may offer some respite, most yard trees will soon rely solely on you for a drink. Unfortunately, that dependence ofte

In the world of Urban Forestry one of the concepts we consider is the safe useful life expectancy (SULE) of a tree. There are many component

Valentine’s Day is nigh. Do you wish for romantic gifts of silken fabric, sweet fruit or gorgeous flowers? A genuine “silk” tree could be a

Trees add to our enjoyment of our daily living. Providing habitat for local fauna, screening from annoying situations, they are harvested fo

Evergreens you might choose, but no larches, spruce or yews… Araucarias: Eye-catching as a towering species, the Norfolk Island pine is ope

October is prime tree planting season in San Diego County. The weather is cooling and our rainy season is due. If you are expecting to plant

By Tim Clancy. Sometimes government agencies get it right. In other cases, government regulations seem arbitrary, over-reaching and...

By Robin Rivet. Summers in San Diego increasingly remind me of places I used to live; but I’m no snowbird. I fled the east coast loathing...

By Tim Clancy. Sometimes it almost seems as if trees have a mind of their own. This is especially true when it comes to pruning and...

By Robin Rivet. Allergies are on the rise. Although grassy plants and food sensitivities account for much of this ascent, there is...

By Tim Clancy. In the time before the internet, when you needed information, often you would begin by consulting your collection of...

By Robin Rivet. Tree topping is brutal. Although the term “butchered” is frequently used, butchers are highly skilled meat cutters. Tree...

By Tim Clancy. The disease triangle is often used to illustrate the elements necessary for a pathogen to be successful. The three...

By Robin Rivet. Don’t groan about my pun. The “Wizard of Oz” was one of my favorite films, even if the famous “lions and tigers and...

Sometimes people want to know how I got into trees. Here is my story. By Tim Clancy. My interest in trees began as a young boy in Fabius,...

By Robin Rivet. In the winter of 1953, an inner-city husband arrived home on Christmas Eve. He carried a three-foot balsam fir tree into...

By Tim Clancy. I have worked for a few tree "care" companies. One thing I noticed is that as fall and winter approach, the business of...

By Robin Rivet. Does your surname fall at the end of the alphabet? Were you often called last at school? It seems that even with plants,...

By Tim Clancy. Not all trees are created equal, and not all trees are benign. All over the country, there are trees that are classified...

By Robin Rivet. Imagine a hot summer day... This year, you don’t need too much imagination. As average summer temperatures continue to...

By Tim Clancy. Pot-Bellied Pig Syndrome 'Right tree, right place,' is an often-repeated mantra when it comes to choosing and siting trees...

By Robin Rivet. Have you completed “spring cleaning” your trees? Best practice timing for mature tree pruning is vague, and our bird...

By Tim Clancy. Tree root damage to buildings, walkways, roadways, and other infrastructure components is a common concern for all. Damage...

By Robin Rivet. Nitrogen is an essential component of the nucleic acids found in the DNA of all living organisms. Despite the fact that...

By Tim Clancy. What has a dense head and was once used for animal fodder or for sustainably harvesting wood? A pollarded tree, or course!...

By Robin Rivet. Today we face a force to rival Darth Vadar, and it ain’t pretty. The arrival and potential conquest by the Kuroshio and...

By Tim Clancy. One of the great pleasures of working with trees is the opportunity to observe the relationships of creatures with trees....

By Robin Rivet. t was there, and then it was gone—my favorite tree in all of San Diego. I went into shock. Then anger. Although most...

By Tim Clancy. There is a cognitive bias known as the law of the hammer. The concept is that if the only tool you have is a hammer then...

By Robin Rivet. Have you ever pondered what it would be like to live for 1000 years? What about 4000, or even 5000 years? There are such...

By Tim Clancy. The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) is the keeper of standards for all sorts of products and services. These...

By Robin Rivet. Revered for their sweet-tart taste, healthful anti-oxidants, and characteristic crimson juice, the allure of a...

By Tim Clancy. My first arboricultural encounter with lethal disease killing a tree from the inside was about 25 years ago. The tree, a...

By Robin Rivet. Final exams and Southern California’s rainy season are over, but in June the jacaranda tree (Jacaranda mimosifolia) is...