Trees Problems

I have a young ash tree, about 8 years old. Suddenly the leaves are drying up and falling off. Looking closer at the leaves on the tree, some appear healthy, others have brown spots and others still seem to be yellowing on the edges. The other ash trees in the area seem unaffected.

My ash tree is losing a lot of leaves this spring.

My 38 year old white ash seems to be struggling this year. The leaf tips seem to be shriveling up near the end of branches. There is no sign of insect infestation or other blight. The plants have received plenty of water. Is there anything to this?

Our autumn purple ash developed hickory nut size growths all over the tree. What are they and will it hurt the tree?

I have an Austrian pine where the tips are breaking off in spring and fall. I had them sprayed in or about June due to needles turning brown. Shortly thereafter the tree and needles showed noticeable improvement. However the tips are beginning to break off again. Please help.

I want to plant a Tricolor beech in my landscape. Do you have any suggestions for making this a success?

I have a 20' river birch that was transplanted to our yard from a nursery 4 years ago. It has gotten less and less "leafy" every year - all at the top.  This year the top 25% of the tree is leafless. We've had a lot of rain this spring. The bottom 75% looks great.  What's going on? Feeding? We've done none. The soil is about 12" of topsoil then kind of sandy.

My White Birch tree's leaves are more yellowish in color than green. Also some of the branches at the ends do not have leaves.

We have a birch tree that could be 15 years old. Last season one portion did not get leaves on it. We are wondering if we should cut the tree down and start over. Can we save the tree?

Melinda, these black spots or growths are on my tree in the front yard. How do I treat them?

A strange orange growth appeared on several branches of my evergreen for two weeks last spring. It was about the size of a golf ball before it shriveled away. Do you know what it is?

Each year my crabapple seems to lose its leaves earlier and earlier. They develop spots, turn yellow and soon drop. What can I do?

I have a 15-year-old dwarf golden delicious apple tree. Every year beginning in July it starts dropping it’s leaves. I spray it annually with fungicide and insecticide, but the problem continues. An experienced gardener told me it was the pine trees in my neighbor's yard causing the problem.

It seems that all of my pine trees, including Ponderosa and Mugo, have been invaded by a small pumpkin orange worm that bores into the tip of the new shoot of each branch. They generally show up in late spring and kill all the new growth on the trees, which sometimes can be up to six inches. Is there anything I can spray on the trees that will get rid of these worms?

Will you please look at the attached photos and tell me if you know what is attaching itself to my tree. It is a pink magnolia or I have heard it called a "tulip tree." It looks like little bumps all over the tree. When I pull them off them are filled with black stuff and a red liquid. I'm worried it will kill my tree.

We have several maples where the edges of the leaves are turning black. Any ideas?

We have worms on our Mugo pine bush. They are eating all of the needles off. We had them last year and thought we had them under control, but they are back and more abundant than before.

I have three mugo pines that have been doing great. Last year they developed a frost like appearance. It looked pretty at first but I am afraid it is some type of scale insect.

I have a 3 year old dwarf cherry tree. Each winter the rabbits have trimmed the branches that reach the ground. I realize this results in a loss of flowers when it blooms but is it harmful to the tree? Should I trim it? It can't be fenced in because of it's location in a cascading garden.

I have about a 30 year old maple tree and over the past few years I have a rather large mushroom growing on the base of the trunk. Each year the mushroom is bigger. It even grew back after treating it with Round-up. Now there are two that look like elephant ears stacked one on the other. Are these overly dangerous, I have children? Secondly, is there anything I can do to eliminate these without harming the tree?

Now that the snow has melted, I see that moles or mice have stripped the bark on my crab trees and yellow twig dogwood. They've eaten all the way around the tree up to about 12" high. Is there anything I can do to help the trees?

Our business is located in a suburban industrial park and we have a number of trees that were planted in 1995 and are about 8" in diameter. One of our employees noticed that two of the trees were severely damaged in just the past day or so. I have attached a photo to show the damage. The damage, which appears to be from a gnawing animal, goes completely around one tree and half-way around the other (thus far). The gnawing is about 6 " in height. Do you know what is causing this, and is there anything we can do right now to stop this from happening to all of the remaining trees? I assume that once the tree is completely girded like the first one, that it will soon die. Is there anything we can do for it?