Home Builder Developer - Interior Renovation and Design

The frequency and severity of winter damage is determined by a number of factors, including the plant species or cultivar involved, the location and conditions under which the plant is grown, and the exact timing of weather extremes during the dormant period. Contrary to popular belief, plant damage is not generally caused by an unusually cold winter. Low temperature injury is more often associated with extreme temperature fluctuation than with prolonged cold weather.

Acclimation to temperatures much below freezing results from exposure to slowly falling temperatures and other factors. Plants that are dormant but not fully acclimated can be stressed or injured by a sudden, hard freeze. Rapid or extensive drops in temperature following mild autumn weather cause injury to woody plants. Extended periods of mild winter weather can de-acclimate plants, again making them vulnerable to injury from rapid temperature drops.

Some species or cultivars of trees and shrubs are injured if temperatures fall below a minimum tolerance level. Plants most likely to suffer winter injury are those that are marginally hardy for the area or those already weakened by previous stress. Species such as rhododendron, holly, and some magnolias may survive several mild winters in the Chicago region before a more typical winter causes injury. Flower buds are often the most susceptible. If plants with marginal hardiness are used, they should be planted in protected sites, such as courtyards or sheltered areas. In general, low temperatures are much less damaging than rapid and extensive variations in temperature.

Frost cracks, sometimes called radial shakes, appear as shallow to deep longitudinal cracks in the trunk of trees. They are most evident in winter at temperatures below 15F. Frost cracks often, but not always, occur on the south or southwest sides of trees because this area experiences the greatest temperature fluctuations between day and night. A sudden drop in temperature causes the outer layer of wood to contract more rapidly than the inner layer, which results in a long vertical crack at weak points in the trunk. Once a frost crack occurs on a tree, it is likely to appear annually. Trees most susceptible to frost cracks include London plane, oak, Norway and red maple, horsechestnut, crabapple, walnut, linden, and willow.

An elongated canker found on the trunk of thin-barked trees, such as beech, maple, willow, white pine, and linden, is often referred to as "sunscald". Sunscald often develops on the south or southwest side of trees following a sudden exposure to direct sun. In winter, the temperatures on the sun-side of the trunk may exceed air temperatures by as much as 20F. This is thought to trigger de-acclimation of trunk tissue. The bark slowly darkens, turns reddish brown, and becomes rough. After a time, the callus tissue eventually cracks and falls away. Sometimes only the outermost cambium layer is damaged and a sunken area appears on the trunk. Affected trees often have sparse foliage, stem dieback, and stunted growth.

A browning or scorched leaf tip on evergreen foliage in late winter and early spring is a form of winter injury. Browning usually occurs from the needle tips downward. Symptoms of winter burn are present on many narrow-leafed evergreens, such as hemlock, juniper, pine, and yew, and broad-leaved evergreens, such as boxwood and rhododendron. Winterburn is usually attributed to desiccation or loss of water through leaf transpiration. Winter sun and winds dry needles. Water in the stems and roots is frozen and unavailable to replenish the loss. A rapid drop in temperature after a warm sunny day can also cause further injury to the plant. Applying an anti-transpirant, also called antidesiccant, helps reduce transpiration and minimizes damage to the foliage. At least two applications per season, one in December and another in February are usually necessary to provide protection all winter.

Once spring growth has begun, a late spring frost can cause damage to de-acclimated woody stems, blossoms, and new shoots. Frozen, succulent, new tissue turns flaccid, appears watersoaked, and withers within a short time. Though symptoms resemble blight diseases, freeze injury appears suddenly after a hard frost, while diseases such as bacterial fire blight, juniper blight, and pine tip blight are progressive over time.

Root tissues apparently do not acclimate to temperatures much below freezing and can be killed or severely injured by soil temperature below 15F. This is especially true for shallow rooted plants. Fortunately, the presence of mulch, leaf litter, or snow cover insulates most soils sufficiently to prevent soil temperatures from falling much below freezing. Plants with frozen roots may wilt and decline after growth resumes in the spring.

Heavy snow and ice storms cause damage by bending and breaking branches. Multi-stemmed evergreens, such as yews, arborvitae, and junipers, are often the most prone to damage. To protect these plants from limb breakage prior to winter, tie branches together loosely with strips of cloth or coated twine. Remove in early spring.

The branches of many hardwoods, such as Siberian elm, maples, and birch, may be seriously damaged in ice storms. Improper removal of ice or snow from the tree or shrub might increase damage. Heavy snow should be removed gently before it freezes to limbs and branches. Removing ice encased on branches can cause additional damage and should not be attempted. Instead, allow ice to melt off naturally.

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Winter Injury to Trees and Shrubs | The Morton Arboretum

Call to have an arborist, or tree doctor, from our Houston tree service office come out to provide you with preventive tree care, shrub care, and landscape management services in the Greater Houston area, including Downtown (77002, 77004), Galleria (77056), West University Place (77005), River Oaks (77019), Houston Heights (77008, 77007, 77009), Bellaire (77401), Memorial (77024), West Memorial (77079, 77077, 77094), Memorial Northwest (77070, 77379), Champions, Spring (77380, 77381, 77381, 77382, 77389), The Woodlands, and Cypress (77429, 77377) areas. We also service Tanglewood (77056, 77057), Memorial Villages, Spring Valley (77055), Oak Forest (77018), Katy (77084, 77449, 77450, 77494, 77493), Sugar Land (77478, 77479), Missouri City (77459, 77489), Fulshear (77441), Richmond (77406, 77407), Southside Place, Greater Heights, Kirby, Upper Kirby, Montrose (77006), Afton Oaks, Midtown, Uptown, Neartown, Garden Oaks, Bridgeland (77433), Sienna Plantation, and Royal Oaks (77082). View more details on the areas served by our Houston office.

Arborists in our Houston 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 Houston 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 Houston 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 Houston, TX area.

Drought Services Moisture deficiency from drought is the most common stress encountered in the landscape.

Plant Analysis and Diagnostics Contact an arborist to determine the cause of a plant health problem or to identify a pest infestation.

Tree Removal Expert removals can be performed for a number of reasons ranging from dying trees to new construction.

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.

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.

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Tree Service and Shrub Care - Bartlett Tree Experts - Houston

HAMMOND, La. (Press Release) Our spring- and summer-flowering trees and shrubs are growing and preparing for another great bloom season. One of favorite landscape plants for late spring and summer is the popular and loved crape myrtle.

In order for blooming to be best this summer, spring management practices are important. We also need to watch for a new crape myrtle pest crape myrtle bark scale.

For the best summer blooms, make sure your crape myrtle trees receive maximum sunlight at least eight hours of direct sun a day. We recommend fertilizing crape myrtle trees in the late winter or early spring mid-March to mid-April is ideal. You can use a slow-release fertilizer or you may select 8-8-8, 13-13-13 or similar balanced fertilizer formulations.

Watch new foliage in spring for aphid infestations. These insects feed on terminal growth and cause sooty mold to develop on leaves if populations are not controlled.

One of the main issues with crape myrtles now throughout Louisiana and problematic in other states, too, is the rapid upsurge in improper pruning techniques. We refer to this as crape murder.

Cutting back crape myrtles by reducing their height is not the correct way to prune. If a crape myrtle needs pruning, the best thing to do is to thin the interior stems of the plant canopy. Heading back the terminal branches by a foot or so is acceptable, but major heading back isnt.

In addition to crape murder, proper management and aphids, we need to be aware of the relatively new invasive pest affecting crape myrtles in Louisiana. Crape myrtle bark scale is very serious. Trees with crape myrtle bark scale have fewer blooms.

Crape myrtle bark scale was first found in the United States in Texas in 2004 and is now in Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Tennessee and Georgia. They have been identified in Louisiana in the Shreveport-Bossier City area, Minden, Monroe, Rayville, Houma, Hammond, uptown New Orleans and possibly Alexandria. The immature insects start moving in midwinter in Louisiana, and populations build all through summer.

Crape myrtle bark scale will appear as white or gray encrusted waxy spots around pruning cuts and in the crotches of branches. Sometimes the insects exude a pinkish tinge or liquid when touched or squished. Black sooty mold covering stems and trunks rather than primarily on foliage when aphids or white fliers are present is a drive by way to observe possible scale populations.

Heavy infestations can be scrubbed with soap and water or pressure washed with a sprayer or garden hose to physically remove insects. A systemic insecticide is a treatment for long-term control to eliminate or reduce populations. Apply the insecticide to the plant in April; timing is critical. Systemic insecticides include dinotefuran (such as Greenlight Tree and Shrub Insect Control with Safari) and imidacloprid (such as Bayer Advanced Garden Tree and Shrub Insect Control). These products can lead to significant population reductions by midsummer.

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Start Caring for Crape Myrtles Now

Work that i #39;ve done throughout the years.
A compilation of Faux painting, furniture, tile work mics work that I have done.

By: Al Rado

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Work that i've done throughout the years. - Video

The foundation was laid. The walls went up. The roof went on and the finish work finally ended.

The wait was nearly a year. But the day finally arrived.

All that was left was to move into their new home, which they started doing in stagesin late February.

Its life-changing, said Clover Jacobs, who moved into the new Southside home with husband Tim and sons Ranen, 2 and Azaiah, 6 months. Its a huge step in a direction we didnt think wed be able to go for several years at the very least.

The home was made possible through Habitat for Humanity of Northern Arizona, and it is the first one built in Flagstaff since 2012.

The organization has a focus of enriching communities by building, renovating and repairing simple, affordable homes for qualifying families and individuals in need.

Eric Wolverton, executive director for Habitat for Humanity of Northern Arizona, said the organization provides assistance to people who cant get a conventional loan. The people who qualify are low- to middle-income families who must meet certain criteria to ensure they can afford the mortgage with all other expenditures based on their income.

GROWING FAMILY

Tim is a nurse and Clover works part-time for the Arizona Childrens Association.

Before they moved into their new home, they were renting a one-bedroom home, which didnt provide much room for their growing family.

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A Flagstaff home of their own

When Stacey Lopis' friends see the bathroom in her 1960-vintage Hawthorne ranch, they all say the same thing: "You have to get rid of the pink tile."

Pink bathrooms.

They were built by the millions in 1950s and 1960s ranches, Capes and split-levels, but they get no love from today's home buyers -- even the young buyers who are drawn to other midcentury styles in architecture and design.

"As much as the midcentury modern look is back, it's still something that people are not going to find appealing," said Gary Silberstein, a real estate agent with Keller Williams in Woodcliff Lake, N.J. "Barbie's not back."

But one lover of 1950s design says pink bathrooms deserve more respect.

"Pink bathrooms are emblematic of the design of the period," said Pam Kueber, who started the websites Save the Pink Bathrooms (savethepinkbathroom.com) and Retro Renovation (retrorenovation.com) after buying a 1950s ranch in Lenox, Mass. "If people could get their heads around pink bathrooms, they'd understand why something that looks so shocking today is actually a very appealing and wonderful thing."

Kueber said developers of suburban tract homes started installing pink bathrooms after Mamie Eisenhower popularized the color when she wore a rhinestone-studded blush ball gown to her husband's presidential inauguration in 1953.

Kueber started Save the Pink Bathrooms after watching people rip them out with "sledgehammer glee" on TV home-improvement shows.

"They'd throw the toilets out the window and guffaw. I was appalled. That's disrespectful," she said. "That bath was put in by somebody who loved that color."

Pink wasn't the only pastel used in postwar home design, as the nation's mood turned sunnier. Builders also put in bathrooms that were yellow, blue or green, often with black trim.

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Pink bathrooms find few remaining fans

SUNBURY - In addition to structural repairs at the historic Northumberland County Courthouse, veteran court administrator Brandy Yasenchak believes heating problems at the facility have forced employees to work in an uncomfortable and unhealthy environment at times.

Yasenchak took a News-Item reporter on a tour of the courthouse Wednesday morning to illustrate some of the problem areas.

She pointed out cracks in the tile, which are slanted downward in some areas of a narrow second-floor hallway outside Courtroom No. 1, next to a stairwell leading to the third floor. Also, there are tiles that are recessing near the steps leading to the second floor, and there is ceiling and stairwell dam-

age in the foyer of Courtroom No. 1 at the front of the courthouse, which has kept the stairwell closed for several years.

The cracks in the tile on the first and second floors and the uneven floors that have surfaced during the past year concern Yasenchak the most, she said, because they indicate the building must be shifting or otherwise settling.

Those structural concerns are what county Commissioner Chairman Vinny Clausi cited last month when he expanded the county's consideration of construction of a new prison to include talk of a new courthouse, too.

The county prison was destroyed by fire Jan. 14, and Clausi has proposed building a new prison, a pre-release center and courthouse at the former Knight-Celotex plant owned by Moran Industries in Sunbury.

In the next two or three weeks, Clausi said the commissioners will make an announcement on which direction they will proceed in terms of the prison proposal. Clausi said a feasibility study by CGL Companies of Columbia, S.C., to determine the appropriate options and solutions to the prison crisis should be completed next week.

'Fire trap'

Yasenchak showed area sof the fourth-floor attic that have been damaged by water over the years and other upper sections of the courthouse, which was built in the mid-1860s.

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Court administrator cites unhealthy conditions inside courthouse

Draining Your Sprinkler System
Jetski Landscape shows you how to drain your sprinkler system.

By: awana4kids

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Draining Your Sprinkler System - Video

Desirable #39;Must See #39; Ranch Style at 481 Wapola Dr Loveland
Great neighborhood, 4 bedroom, 3 baths, finished basement with large family room, wet bar, surround sound, bath, storage and more. Kitchen has stainless steel appliances, Tuscan back splash...

By: CurbAppealPhotoCO

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Desirable 'Must See' Ranch Style at 481 Wapola Dr Loveland - Video

The plush, green lawns that dot the cities and suburbs of California are in danger.

New restrictions meant to cut water use by 25 percent amid a four-year drought could force home owners to let their grass go brown unless new smart sprinkler controllers save the day. These gadgets use Wi-Fi and sensors to cut back water usage on lawns by anywhere from 30 to 50 percent.

"It's a proven technology," said David Sedlak, co-director of the Berkeley Water Center and author of "Water 4.0: The Past, Present, and Future of the World's Most Vital Resource."

California is taking unprecedented measures to address the prolonged drought. On Wednesday, Gov. Jerry Brown held a press conference to issue the executive order. His message was clear: "The idea of your nice little green lawn getting watered every day, those days are past."

While agriculture uses 80 percent of the water in California, there is still plenty of H20 used in residential areas. And a lot of that is being wasted. Nationally, 50 percent of the water used on lawns disappears thanks to the wind, evaporation and runoff, according to the EPA.

Smart sprinkler controllers want to prevent all of that water from disappearing. They work kind of like Nest, the smart thermostat, except that they regulate water use instead of the temperature.

Rachio is already available at Home Depot and will start appearing at Best Buy locations next month. Skydrop will be at every Lowe's in the country starting on May 1 (Both are already available online). They use a Wi-Fi connection to constantly monitor local weather conditions. Combined with data about the lawn (e.g. the slope, soil type, and vegetation), they automatically tell the sprinkler system how much water to release.

"Normal sprinkler controllers are almost like egg timers, and they control a very valuable resource," Chris Klein, co-founder of Rachio, told NBC News.

"They have no concept of the environment around them they don't know what season it is, they don't know what the weather is like. With the technology that we have today, there is no reason to have these kinds of controllers anymore."

When lawns do need water, these smart controllers release it in timed bursts so that the water is absorbed completely before the soil gets hit with more. That prevents water from pooling in the sun to evaporate or oversaturating the lawn and running down the driveway.

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How Tech Could Save California Lawns