#1 Transplanting and a Deeper Look at “Fall Hazards”

Encore! Encore! Originally published on the blog in 2015, this post continues to be highly relevant to our blog readers; in the lifetime of the post, it’s been viewed more than 5300 times. Former NYC Director of Street Tree Planting Matt Stephens and NYSUFC Editor Michelle Sutton coauthored this story questioning commonly held beliefs about “fall hazards,” mostly as it applies to B&B trees, but they also discuss the interaction of the fall season with other production methods, like bare root. Nina Bassuk helped craft the section called “The Five Branches of Transplanting Success,” which will be of interest to anyone planting trees.

The female Ostrya catkins morph into showy clusters of drooping seed pods that look like hops. Photo by Eric Hunt – Own work, Wikimedia CC BY-SA 3.0

#2 SMA 2019 Urban Tree of the Year: American hophornbeam (Ostrya virginiana)

Folks were keen to know more about this tough, underutilized street tree with the funny name–and why SMA members esteem it so highly. 

 

‘Regal Prince’ oak on the main thoroughfare in Ithaca. Photo by Nina Bassuk

#3 Underutilized Trees for Urban Use: ‘Regal Prince’ Oak 

This 2017 post caught fire in 2019. Regal Prince is the trademark name for Quercus x warei ‘Long’, a narrow, upright hybrid of fastigiate English oak (Quercus robur f. fastigiata) and swamp white oak (Quercus bicolor). Its leaves are clearly intermediate in shape and are glossy and leathery like those of swamp white oak. In Ithaca, NY, Nina Bassuk and Andy Hillman first planted Regal Prince in 2005, and the oaks have performed well in tough situations there ever since.

#4 SMA 2016 Urban Tree of the Year: Zelkova serrata ‘Musashino’ 

J. Frank Schmidt & Son Co. literature says that the slender ‘Musashino’ leaves are just 3 inches in length on average, reducing the need for raking/leaf cleanup in the fall. They say that the cultivar “prefers moist, well-drained soil but can tolerate drought, is pH adaptable, pollution tolerant, and more heat tolerant than other zelkova selections.” It’s an upright tree that can fit into tighter urban spaces. Unfortunately, zelkova flowers produce copious amounts of pollen in spring, and zelkova is thought to contribute significantly to allergy sufferers’ misery. 

#5 David Moore’s Advice to Budding Urban Foresters 

NYSUFC Past President (2015-2017) David Moore was the recipient of the 2019 Arbor Day Foundation Trailblazer Award, which recognizes outstanding achievement in arboriculture and/or urban forestry by professionals under 35. After working for ten years in New York City for New York Restoration Project and then for NYC Parks, David is now the Senior Tree Supervisor for Oakland, CA in their Public Works Department. Within his first year there, David secured a million-dollar grant for a citywide tree inventory and 50-year urban forestry master plan for Oakland. Receiving the Trailblazer Award sparked in David a period of reflection about his career and mentors thus far. Here, he offers seven pieces of counsel for young or new city forester colleagues. Nearly 1000 folks checked out this post in 2019.