Spring is here and that means it is also thunderstorm season in the Kansas City area, so we thought we would take a moment to remind everyone that Cartwright Tree Care offers a 24-hour Emergency Response Service. Any time storms are in the forecast, our response teams are put on alert and will be ready and available to relieve you of the damage caused by limbs and debris that has fallen onto houses, cars and driveways, as well as provide an expert diagnosis of the damage to your trees. They will also determine cost-effective treatment options to restore your trees’ health.

It is essential to properly care for your newly planted young trees. The care you give to your trees in the beginning phases of their growth can and will affect their shape, strength, and life span, according to the Arbor Day Foundation blog. Young trees use a lot of their energy just to establish their roots in the soil, which makes them susceptible to heat and drought, as well as other issues. Fortunately, there are a few things you can do to keep young trees healthy and strong. Check out these tips from the Arbor Day Foundation blog.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) recently revealed the results of an 18-year study on 27,000 trees. The study revealed that tree growth, as well as a tree’s ability to produce viable seeds, may be more sensitive to climate change than previously thought. Some of the factors affecting tree growth and reproduction include earlier spring warming and summer drought.

We may be a long way from Pennsylvania, but we love what's going on in Philadelphia lately! The city has quite an ambitious goal for the next several years – to plant 300,000 trees by the year 2015. According to Philly.com, the University of Pennsylvania (Penn) helped to jump start the effort yesterday with a new program that provides free trees to the faculty and staff. The goal of the project is to create a more sustainable landscape within the city, as well as create a greener campus at Penn.

Sometimes we like to share information here on the Cartwright Tree Care blog that will be helpful to you in caring for your trees, and sometimes we just like to share information that we find to be interesting or fun. Today is one of those days for interesting and fun information, so we’re going to talk about American’s National Tree – the oak tree.

We may not be landscape architects, but we do know a thing or two about how beneficial trees can be in regards to your landscape. When placed around your property in a strategic manner and maintained properly, trees can enhance the beauty of your home and lawn. But the benefits of trees don’t stop there – trees can in fact help increase your home’s energy efficiency!

A new study out of the Department of Biology at McGill University has shown that large older trees could be very important in the growth of today’s forests. The study was conducted by Dr. Zoë Lindo, a post-doctoral fellow, and Jonathan Whiteley, a doctoral student. The findings of the study highlight the importance of maintaining large old-growth trees in coastal temperate rainforests stretching from Southern Alaska to Northern California, according to Science Daily.

Have you ever put trees and electricity together? The two seem like polar opposites to some, but in the past few years there has been quite a bit of research that links the two together.

Along with taking preventative action against common tree diseases, now is a great time to have your trees pruned. While pruning can be done anytime of the year, pruning before spring is a great way to enhance the beauty of your landscape trees right in time for the new season.

Tip blight, or pine blight as it is often called, is another common problem among the pine trees here in the Kansas City area, especially in Austrian and Scots pines. As we’ve previously mentioned, tip blight is a fungal disease that typically affects pine trees that are 15 years of age and older. It infects the growing buds and shoots, causing the newest needles of a tree to have stunted growth and turn brown in color, according to Landscape-America. After needles have been infected, they stop growing. It is important to note that symptoms of tip blight are not limited to the needles. Tip blight can affect future tree growth by damaging the terminal buds during infection, as well as stunting the growth of twigs and deforming them.