Treeology | Blog
DONOVAN ARBORISTS
Our goal is to provide a valuable resource for people who are interested in learning more about trees. We want to help people understand the importance of trees and how they can play a role in protecting our environment.
Tree Care Services
Our ISA Certified Arborists ensure that you get the highest quality tree care.
Free Estimates
We offer free estimates for tree planting, trimming, removal, cabling and bracing.
Plant Health Care Services
We believe in being proactive in preventing insect infestations and disease outbreaks.
The Bristlecone Pine
Bristlecone pines are tough customers. They grow where nothing else will and last for centuries. In fact, a Great Basin bristlecone pine in California’s White Mountains has been calculated as being 5,067 years old, making it the oldest known individual tree on earth. Clonal colonies of plants and microorganisms can last for 10,000 or more years—the Pando colony of quaking aspens in Utah, for example—but when it comes to individual organisms, the bristlecone is champ.
Trees to Avoid Along Colorado’s Front Range
As springtime approaches, homeowners’ thoughts turn to Colorado’s great outdoors and ways to enjoy it. Often that’s right in their own back yards, so it’s important to build a space to enjoy for years to come. And one of the things that can have a big impact on that enjoyment is the choice of trees.
Colorado’s Arbor Day is April 20
What’s the favorite holiday at Donovan Arborists? Arbor Day, of course! And in Colorado Arbor Day is celebrated on the third Friday of each April. This year that gives us a one-week jump on the national celebration, held on the last Friday of the month, the 27th.
The “Life Zones” of Colorado
The US Department of Agriculture publishes a list of Plant Hardiness Zones to help gardeners determine which plants are likely to survive in a given geographical location. But these zones are based on average minimum winter temperatures and don’t take other factors like precipitation and soil condition into account. Most of Metro Denver falls in USDA Zones 4-6, but with the wide range of growing conditions facing Coloradans, knowing a climate zone may not be enough information for successful planting.
Be Careful With Deicers
With recent heavy snows and record low temperatures, it’s important to remember that misuse of chemical deicing compounds can cause serious damage to your trees and plants. And you might not know how much damage they’ve done until spring when grass, plants and trees are dead and walks and driveways are riddled with pits and cracks.
Plan Now for Summer Pests
The time to treat pest infestations and diseases in your landscape is before they occur. And early spring is a good time to start with a program of Integrated Pest Management.
First Responder For Your Trees
When Paul Donovan got the urgent notification, he happened to be just blocks away from Congress Park. A certified arborist, his is an outside job. Within minutes he was on the scene in Congress Park. Because that’s what first responders do.
Donovan is a Certified Arborist. The customer calling for his help had used his services for the last 5 years. Denver Water had begun its replacement of the water main along Milwaukee Street from 6th to 13th avenues. A backhoe operator at work digging up the old sewer main had pivoted his backhoe around and slammed the bucket of the truck hard into the tree resulting in a 4 foot crack in the bark at the trunk. The bark had loosened.
Don’t Neglect Storm Damage
The strong winds of early April left a lot of tree damage in their wake. Broken branches and fallen trees were common across the metro Denver area. Now that the worst of the damage has been cleared up it’s time to take a look at the aftereffects.
Walk around your property and look for leftover damage such as exposed wounds where branches were torn away and partial breaks that have weakened limbs. Check around root areas to see if there are signs of partial uprooting.
Trees of Colorado: Ginkgo Biloba (Maidenhair Tree)
If you want a beautiful, exotic shade tree that’s a living fossil too, you might want to look at the gingko. Unique among existing trees, the gingko is a species apart. It has no living relatives, all others having disappeared over its 270-million-year history.
The American Sycamore
The next time you check your 401k give a nod to the American sycamore. It was under the shade of one, also known as a buttonwood tree, that financiers gathered in New York City in 1792 to sign the Buttonwood Agreement, creating the New York Stock Exchange.