Our office services the greater Charlotte area, all of Mecklenburg County along with Gaston County, Union County, and South Carolina Upstate. View more details on the areas served by our Charlotte office.

Arborists in our Charlotte office are committed to helping local residents and businesses maintain beautiful, healthy trees and shrubs. Our arborists are experts in diagnosing and treating tree and shrub problems specific to the Charlotte area. Plus, with access to Bartletts global resources and advanced scientific research facility, we can provide customers with benefits that just arent available from other Charlotte tree services.

Bartlett Tree Experts offers a variety of services to help our customers maintain beautiful, healthy trees and shrubs. No matter the size or scope of your tree service or shrub care needs, we want to work with you to protect your landscape investment. Access a complete list of the tree services we provide in the Charlotte, NC area.

Cabling and Bracing Cables and brace rods can help reduce the risk of failure of weak branches and multiple stems.

Insect and Disease Management Bartlett uses an integrated approach to suppress pests and manage tree diseases on your property.

Pruning Pruning is periodically required to improve the health and appearance of woody landscape plants.

Fertilization and Soil Management To thrive, trees and shrubs require a healthy blend of nutrients in the soil where they live.

Lightning Protection For high value trees, lightning protection systems can minimize the risk of damage from a strike.

Storm Damage Some basic procedures can help reduce the risk of damage to your trees from severe storms.

The TCIA Accreditation "seal of approval" helps consumers find tree care companies that have been inspected and accredited based on adherence to industry standards for quality and safety, maintenance of trained, professional staff, and dedication to ethics and quality in business practices. Through research, technology, and education, the International Society of Arboriculture (ISA) promotes the professional practice of arboriculture and fosters a greater worldwide awareness of the benefits of trees. The Board-Certified Master Arborist credential is designed for arborists who have reached the pinnacle of their profession.

More here:
Bartlett Tree Experts: Tree Service and Shrub Care in ...

Extension > Garden > Yard and Garden > Pruning trees and shrubs

Mark Zins and Deborah Brown, former Extension Horticulturists

Pruning is a horticultural practice that alters the form and growth of a plant. Based on aesthetics and science, pruning can also be considered preventive maintenance. Many problems may be prevented by pruning correctly during formative years for a tree or shrub.

Avoid topping trees. Removing large branches leaves stubs that can cause several health problems. It also destroys the plant's natural shape and promotes suckering and development of weak branch structure.

Appearance in the landscape is essential to a plant's usefulness. For most landscapes, a plant's natural form is best. Avoid shearing shrubs into tight geometrical forms that can adversely affect flowering. Alter a plant's natural form only if it needs to be confined or trained for a specific purpose. When plants are pruned well, it is difficult to see that they have been pruned! Prune to:

Pruning is really the best preventive maintenance a young plant can receive. It is critical for young trees to be trained to encourage them to develop a strong structure. (See Figure 1)

Too many young trees are pruned improperly or not pruned at all for several years. By then it may become a major operation to remove bigger branches, and trees may become deformed.

At planting, remove only diseased, dead, or broken branches. Begin training a plant during the dormant season following planting.

Pruning young shrubs is not as critical as pruning young trees, but take care to use the same principles to encourage good branch structure.

Figure 1. Issues to watch for when pruning trees

The rest is here:
Pruning trees and shrubs : Yard and Garden : Garden ...

Just inside his single-story home, built of concrete blocks and coated in turquoise paint, Hwang Sang-ki, a 58-year-old Korean taxi driver, sits on a floor mat. Hes clasping a small handbag, once bright white and now dull after years on a shelf. He pulls out a snapshot of 13smiling young women, all co-workers at Samsung Electronics (005930:KS), off-duty and posing in three rows, each embracing or leaning into the other. The leaves of a tree behind them are turning golden in the autumn chill.

Here, says Hwang, pointing to two women in the center of the group. Both had the same job at the same semiconductor factory, on the same line, standing side by side at the same workstation, dipping computer chips into the same vat of chemicals. Both got a particularly aggressive form of the blood cancer known as acute myeloid leukemia. One was his daughter, Yu-mi. In South Korea, only about 3 out of every 100,000 people die of leukemia. They worked together, and they died, says Hwang. The snapshot is among a few private memories Hwang keeps of his late daughter.

The story of the two women, and dozens of Samsung workers with leukemia and other rare cancers, is now a very public one in South Korea. In February and March, Koreans could see two movies depicting the seven-year battle led by the Hwangs and other families against Koreas biggest and most influential corporation.

Another Promise, released in February, tells the story of a thinly veiled Hwang and his daughter, who went to work at a Samsung semiconductor plant in 2003, when she was 18, and died at 22.

Hwang, who has deep smile wrinkles radiating from the sides of his brown eyes and a buzz cut of salt-and-pepper hair, is portrayed by Park Chul-min, a 47-year-old actor with 70 film roles in his career. His character in Another Promise battles with the fictitiously named company Jinsung. The Korea Herald called the movie a meaningful achievement in Korean cinema, as well as for Korean democracy, not so much because of its quality but because of how it was made. Without a major studio backer, the director and producer raised almost 15percent of the $2million budget from hundreds of individuals via crowdsourcing and more than half from about 100 small investors. Its the first Korean film produced this way.

Empire of Shame, a documentary, hit theaters on March6. Three years in the making, it was shot with intimate access to Hwang and other families of Samsung workers. It focuses on the broader movement Hwang launched to illuminate the use of carcinogens in electronics factories, especially semiconductor plants. Since he began, activists have discovered 58 cases of leukemia and other blood-related cancers across several Samsung plants. Samsung declined to discuss specific cases for this article, saying in a statement that it spent about $88million in 2011 on the maintenance and improvement of its safety-related infrastructure.

Im just hoping that you wouldnt say anything against Samsung, the executive told Hwang

The main goal for the movement is to wrest compensation for cancer-stricken workers from a Korean government insurance fund. People such as Hwang and the filmmakers are pushing a conversation into mainstream Korean culture about some of the costs of the countrys miraculous economic rise, which happened in large part on the shoulders of Samsung and the rest of the technology industry, global symbols of pride for many Koreans. Its driving a reexamination of trade-offs in South Koreas past, when the foundation for todays prosperity was built by an authoritarian government working hand in hand with domestic corporate partners who were given great power in exchange for rapid growth. About 20 miles south of Seoul, inside a fenced and secured compound, the Giheung semiconductor factory rises near the wooded shores of a man-made reservoir. The factory is a wide white box sprouting smokestacks and curled tubes from its roof, with Samsungs familiar blue-and-white logo across its front. Built in 1984, the plant was the leading semiconductor factory in the country at a time when chips accounted for about 80percent of all revenue at Samsung Electronics. Giheungs assembly lines were a prestigious place to work.

Many Koreans revere Samsung. In part thats because its success mirrors their own climb from a war that divided a country, killed millions, and left millions more destitute. In 1961, eight years after the Korean War ended in a stalemate, South Koreas per capita gross domestic product was $92, less than that of Sudan, Sierra Leone, or the Democratic Republic of Congo. By last year, South Koreans had the worlds 15th-largest economy. Almost 24percent of GDP came from the revenue of the Samsung Group, a conglomerate made up of dozens of businesses including a life insurance company, a heavy-construction company, the worlds second-biggest shipbuilder, and of course Samsung Electronics.

Yu-mis parents couldnt afford to send her to university, so a recruitment notice from the Giheung factory caught her eye in 2003 when it appeared at her high school in the northeastern port city of Sokcho, along the Sea of Japan. Samsung wanted young women from the top third of Yu-mis graduating class. She met the initial criteria: decent grades, solid attendance, and no record as a troublemaker. She also passed a required medical exam. She had an interview, and she told me she was accepted, her father says. I was very happy, because Samsung is one of the best companies in Korea.

Read more from the original source:
What Samsung Did When Workers Started Dying

As we wait and wait for summer to come, our thoughts turn to the only garden greenery available for our restless pruners to play with: houseplants.

This is an excellent time to focus on houseplants. Those that move outdoors in spring need to be in tiptop shape to make a successful transition.

Plants don't like change. Although dry indoor air isn't ideal, at least your plants are used to it. They are not used to wind, rain and wildly fluctuating temperatures.

As to pests, the whiteflies, spider mites and scale that thrive in your living room won't last long in the company of outdoor predators. But your plants will encounter new nemeses, and healthier plants have better luck fending off foes.

WHITEFLIES WAR

First, check plants thoroughly for signs of pests. I've learned the hard way that infestations I've been able to control but not eliminate tend to worsen as winter drags on. Plants starved for sunlight also lose their fighting spirit.

Whiteflies love my houseplants. Last year, spring came just in time to rescue a 2-year-old tropical honeybush (Melanthus major) whose gorgeous toothy leaves are irresistible to the winged dust specks.

I'm not sure if the bugs were dormant in the soil or if they vanished during summer when the plant lived outside in full sun. Whatever, by mid-March they'd defeated their host plant.

I admit I was their willing accomplice. Reluctant to spend $10 on insecticidal soaps that hadn't worked last year, I sprayed the leaves with plain water, drenching the undersides where the larvae live. The whiteflies multiplied.

Next, I pruned the plant, cutting off most of its stems and leaving only fresh leaf growth. This way, I could focus on just a few leaves and keep them squeaky clean. That didn't work, either.

Read the rest here:
Blundering Gardener: Whiteflies got the best of me until website remedy came to rescue

GrowinGreen #39;s Tree and Shrub Program
If you have a struggling landscape with insects and disease problems then, contact GrowinGreen for our biologically enhanced tree shrub program. Your ticke...

By: GrowinGreen

See the article here:
GrowinGreen's Tree and Shrub Program - Video

Arts/crafts

55th Annual Gem, Jewelry and Mineral Show - The show will feature 40 dealers and 60 displays of precious and semi-precious stones, fossils, specimens and jewelry. It will also include demonstrations and childrens activities. Presented by Rock Rollers of Spokane. Today, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Spokane County Fair and Expo Center, 404 N. Havana St. $6/adults; $5/seniors and military; free/age 12 and younger and Scouts in uniform; free parking and admission is good all weekend. (509)891-6533.

West Central Community Center Rummage Sale - Items include clothing, accessories, baby gear, furniture, housewares, collectibles, toys, electronics, books, video, tools and sporting goods. Benefits Developmental Disabilities and Youth Development programs at West Central Community Center. Cash and credit cards only. Today, 8 a.m.-noon. West Central Community Center, 1603 N. Belt St. Free admission. (509)323-7517.

Annual Spring Rummage Sale Friday, 9 a.m., Newport United Church of Christ, 430 W. Third St., Newport, Wash. Free admission. (509)447-4121.

Spokane Home and Garden Show Friday-April 6. The 38th annual event. Learn of services to make your next home improvement project a success. Friday, noon-8 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m.-7 p.m.; and April 6, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Spokane Convention Center, 334 W. Spokane Falls Blvd. $8/adults; $6/seniors and military; free/age 12 and younger. (509)534-5380.

GFWC Arts, Crafts and Book Bazaar - April 12, 9 a.m., Womans Club of Spokane, 1428 W. Ninth Ave. Free admission. (509)434-9680.

Celebrate Spring Craft Fair - April 18-19. Crafts, food, homemade items, plants and more. Bake sale and concessions both days with Spaghetti Feed on Friday from 4-6 p.m. and Pancake Breakfast on Saturday from 8:30-11 a.m. Hours are Friday, 2-7 p.m., and Saturday, 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Sinto Senior Center, 1124 W. Sinto Ave. Free admission; $5/spaghetti feed, $5/pancake breakfast. (509)327-2861.

Spokane Orchid Society Annual Show and Sale - March 29-30. Eight vendors and hundreds of orchids for sale. There will be raffles and speakers. Come and see prize-winning orchids and displays. Today, 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Southside Community Center, 3151 E. 27th Ave. $2/person; free/age 15 and younger. (509)953-5356.

Horticulture Workshops - The University of Idaho Extension presents the 2014 Idaho Master Gardeners annual horticulture workshops, including: Hunting for Wild Mushrooms in Northern Idaho, Monday, 6-8 p.m., $10; Ice Age Floods, April 7, 6-8 p.m., $10; April 14, Plants and Clean Water: Creating Rain Gardens, Native Gardens and Protecting the Aquifer and Surface Water, 6-8 p.m., $10. Registration is recommended; class sizes are limited. University of Idaho Kootenai County Extension Office, 1808 N. Third St., Coeur dAlene. (208)446-1680.

The Life and Death of the Craftsman House - Peeling stucco, rotting wood, inoperable sash windows? Historic Craftsman or Bungalow houses and their maintenance and preservation issues can be overwhelming for many homeowners. Which areas are most susceptible to decay? What resources are available to homeowners? An informational lecture by Amy Elizabeth Uebel, an architectural conservator, will answer your questions, discuss methods for damage prevention and address suitable preservation treatment options for common issues. Reserve tickets online at http://www.spokanepreservation.org/gala.asp. Monday, 6:30 p.m., Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture, auditorium, 2316 W. First Ave. $10/door (cash or check only). (509)344-1065.

Read the rest here:
Home Calendar - Sun, 30 Mar 2014 PST

Saffron Saffron is used primarily as a spice to season numerous culinary dishes. Saffron is cultivated around the globe and is one of the most expensive spices around. The saffron flower is harvested for various healing purposes which include reducing menstrual pain to alleviating indigestion.

Sage Sage is a shrub like bush that is native to European countries. The woody branches of the herb bare fragrant flowers. Of course, sage is a favorite culinary spice and has many healing qualities enjoyed by numerous people over the years. Those that are bothered by too much mucous in the lungs or congestion in the chest should brew a cup of sage tea and drink a few times a day to ease the symptoms. Sage is also an excellent preparation for insect bites or any type of skin rash.

Sassafras The sassafras tree is native to North America and some parts of Asia. Sassafras tea is brewed and honey is added for a delightful drink. The bark of the sassafras tree is known to repel various bugs and insects. The roots of the tree are used to make molasses like syrup. Sassafras is considered a good treatment for skin rashes, wounds, and arthritic pain.

Savory Savory has a long history in the healing arts. Savory is also a welcome addition to culinary dishes. Summer savory is considered beneficial for the digestive system. Savory relieves gas symptoms and diarrhea. Savory tea is a treatment for coughs and has mild expectorant qualities.

Saw Palmetto Saw palmetto was a main ingredient in numerous medicinal preparations around the turn of the century. Recently, the herb enjoyed renewed popularity as a great herb to help regrow hair or cure male pattern baldness. Further studies suggest that this conclusion is inaccurate. However, traditional doctors are recommending the herb as an additional prostate treatment.

Seaweed Seaweed is also commonly referred to as bladder-wrack and commonly grows along the sea shores around the New England area in the United States. A soup preparation is made from the herb to treat glandular problems.

Online Sources Garden Stacker Planter + Indoor Culinary Herb Garden Kit- Great Gift Idea- Grow Cooking Herbs- Seeds

Medicinal Herb Garden Starter Kit- Start Growing Fresh Medicine Herbs

More Online Sources Herb Reference http://www.herbreference.com/

Herb Formulas http://www.emedicinal.com/herbal-formulas.php

The rest is here:
Amazing Herbs A to Z: S

ONE of the bonsai creations on exhibit in Tayug, Pangasinan, where bonsai-making is growing big. WILLIE LOMIBAO/CONTRIBUTOR

In the northern provinces of Pangasinan and Ilocos Norte, tree lovers are going small.

In the town of Tayug, Pangasinan and Batac City in Ilocos Norte, bonsai-making is becoming a fad.

More residents, not only in Tayug but neighboring eastern Pangasinan towns, are now into bonsai-making not only because the hobby is relaxing, but also because materials for it are in abundance.

Bonsai refers to an ornamental tree or shrub that is grown in a pot with the use of special methods to control its growth.

At the weeklong bonsai exhibition in Tayug that will end on March 21, among the 60 dwarf trees displayed were lagundi, red balete, yellow doggie, gumamela, santan and bougainvillea.

These plants are beautiful attractions in a house. As a hobby, bonsai-growing is relaxing, said Daryl Amon, a member of the Tayug Bonsai Group.

Ive been doing this in the last six years and I have always enjoyed it, he said.

Amon said to be a successful bonsai grower, one must have an eye for art. This is important, he said, so that a material will be groomed to an aesthetically appealing form.

If you have an eye for art, you would immediately have an idea how a material can be developed into a beautiful bonsai the moment you see it, he said.

Read more from the original source:
Bonsai-making becoming big

One last trick you might want to try: Uncle Toms Rose Tonic (see naturalgardensolutions.com for stockists, which include the RHS at Wisley). Despite its clunky-sounding name, this highly effective foliar feed also helps to control fungal diseases, and can dramatically improve the vigour of your rose bushes generally. Healthy plants fight off diseases far better than those that are struggling.

Help for honeysuckle

Do shrubs just run out of steam? I recently saw a winter-flowering honeysuckle absolutely covered in beautifully scented flowers in Bedgebury Pinetum in Kent. I have a similar seven-year-old shrub in my own garden a few miles away, but despite annual pruning and feeding, mine has never flowered profusely and seems to be going downhill year by year.

Carolyn Lovell, via email

This could be simply a question of variety. Your shrub may be Lonicera fragrantissima, while the one you admired may well have been Lonicera x purpusii Winter Beauty, which is generally regarded as superior. It is altogether more compact than

L. fragrantissima, more floriferous and with what can only be described as much more oomph.

You could, however, have been over-pruning your shrub, or pruning it too late. You have to be quick off the mark with winter-flowering shrubs, cutting them back the moment the flowers have faded so that new growth has time to ripen sufficiently to carry flowers the following year. If you prune late and are a bit brutal into the bargain (to keep it in bounds in the case of L. fragrantissima this is a temptation, since it is a lanky, unattractive thing, in my view), the new growth doesnt have time to ripen.

Do shrubs run out of steam? Yes, they must, eventually. But the majority of garden shrubs, if given optimum growing conditions and pruned sensibly every year, with some old growth removed to encourage the production of new, will truck on happily for years and (as an expression that I use far too often) goes, see us out.

Wet lawn weeds

Not one but two weeds of wet ground have unsurprisingly reared their ugly heads this week. Emailer Terry Smith complains about borders invaded by rampant sheeps sorrel (Rumex acetosella), a small-leafed, russet-flowered sorrel that spreads via vigorous rhizomes. He wonders how to tackle it. I had this one embedded in and around an old Victorian rockery, so I know how he feels. I defeated it (more or less) by resorting to that well-known gardeners exercise, a combination of angry ripping and timely daubing with glyphosate when what survived the angry ripping produced enough leaf to treat. The trouble with rhizomatous weeds like this is that every bit that remains after digging/ripping seems to grow with renewed vigour. Sheeps sorrel is a weed of boggy, acid soil, so improving drainage and upping the alkalinity of soil by liming (with ground chalk or ground limestone) may help.

Read more:
Thorny problems: how can I stop rose black spot?

Below are the most common diseases afflicting landscapes. Our research will give you the knowledge to diagnose issues and also offer you solutions with our customized Tree and Shrub services.

This disease will cause brown, dry, blotchy spots on the leaves and may cause the leaves to drop. It can also be easily misdiagnosed as oak wilt. Anthracnose attacks many plants early in the season.

Apple scab causes apple and crabapple trees to drop their leaves early in the late spring and early summer. The leaves will have black and brown spots all over.

On the twigs, you’ll see a soft olive green growth and it will change to hard black knots in the fall. Large clumps of bark swell on the ends of branches and twigs of the tree. This disease mostly attacks fruit and branches. This disease is life threatening if not treated.

The symptoms of this disease are yellow or orange-brown to black discolored areas on the bark of the trunk and branches. The needles turn brown and the lower branches die back. This is most common on trees over 15 years of age.

The affected trees will show needles turning brown to gray at the tips. This may lead to an attack on the twigs and branches. The ends of the pines curl up and turn brown, typically on the lower branches of the pines.

A leaf spot disease creates spots on foliage. Spots are most often brownish, but may be tan or black. Concentric rings or a dark margin around the spot may be present. Trees and shrubs will have dark spotting on the leaves.

Infected needles usually turn red to brown from their tips beginning in winter or early spring. By mid to late spring the death of infected needles is well advanced giving diseased trees a red to brown fire-scorched appearance.

The disease is most active when new growth is wet. Normally the disease attacks in the spring. The new growth will turn brown and when the disease progresses too far, the plant cannot be saved.

The leaves will appear to have a white or gray film in the late summer causing the leave to turn brown and drop early. The wind can blow spores from leaf to leaf.

Read the original here:
Tree and Shrub Diseases - Natural Way Lawn & Tree Care