In 2023 we began pruning on some badly neglected pine trees that had previously been pruned in a Japanese style—more or less—but then had been let go for a few years. We were hired to bring them up to the highest standard possible. Truthfully, they had never been pruned properly ever, although the trees had a decent skeletal structure with which to work. So for the past three years, it has been a matter of thinning and restructuring the entire secondary and tertiary branches each tree in a Japanese naturalistic or sukashi style and then re-establish branch layers or pads. Laboriously and tediously this has been accomplished over the past three years. Now it is a matter of letting the individual pads or layers fill in to give the trees a fuller and less airy look. Within the next two years or so, the fruits of our labors should really begin to pay off as the trees begin to come into their full glory—bonsai on steroids! To view Year One of this ongoing video series, go to • Shore Pines Pruned in Japanese Style (Befo… and • Pruning Coast Pines in the Japanese Sukash… . To view Year Two of this ongoing video series, go to • Fall Japanese Sukashi Style Pine Tree Prun…
Ever wonder what the inside of one of Holland’s windmills looks like? How about viewing all of its inner workings from top to bottom as the wind is turning the windmill? This video is a tour of a working 220 year old sawmill windmill on the Rhine River in Leiden Holland.
Hoichi Kurisu, a world renowned Japanese garden designer and builder and the leading, living Japanese garden architect in the U.S., has paid us a visit!
Several days ago, Nathan gave Mr. Kurisu a tour of his own private Japanese style garden which he calls The Lawrence Cascadian Sukashi Garden. Accompanying Kurisu were Keir, his head project manager; Chino also a project manager; and Ishi, one of Kurisu’s many highly skilled garden craftsman.
Hoichi Kurisu is the builder and or designer of several of the top Japanese gardens in America including the Portland Oregon Japanese Garden, the Morikami Japanese garden in Delray, FL, the Anderson Japanese Garden in Rockford, Ill, the Frederick Meijer Japanese Garden in Grand Rapids, MI, and countless other public and private gardens in the US and in Japan.To learn more about Hoichi Kurisu, just do a web search using his name or go to https://www.kurisu.com to learn more about this amazing artist and national treasure!
In the photo below from left to right: Keir, Nathan, Chino, Ishi and Hoichi Kurisu.
From left to right: Keir, Nathan, Chino, Ishi and Hoichi Kurisu.
Despite the State of Oregon’s best efforts to contain the emerald ash borer (EAB) beetle, more areas of ash tree infestation are being reported. The beetle is slowly beginning to spread across the northern Willamette Valley and is heading south.
This invasive insect that kills all native and ornamental ash trees in its path was first discovered in Forest Grove (east of Portland) in July of 2022. At first, it looked as if containment strategies by the Oregon Department of Forestry might be working to reduce or eliminate the spread of the beetle. But then last summer, a whole new forest of infested native Oregon white ash trees were discovered near Scotts Mill and the Pudding River east of Woodburn between Marion and Clackamas counties some 40 miles SE of Forest Grove. State officials thought that this area of infestation might even have predated that of Forest Grove.
About the same time and more recently, the beetle has been discovered in the city of Woodburn which is located along I-5 between Portland and Salem.
The EAB has also been discovered in Yamhill County making it the fourth Oregon county the insect as reached after Washington, Clackamas and Marion counties (https://www.oregon.gov/oda/ippm/survey-treatment/Pages/emerald-ash-borer.aspx). These EAB infestations are all tens of miles apart from each other. Thus it is safe to say that the EAB has spread to numerous locations in between. What does this mean? The emerald ash borer is on the march!
Once an ash tree is attacked by the EAB, it generally takes two to three years for branches to begin dying. Little by little, the whole tree will die. One hundred percent guaranteed! Already the EAB has killed tens of millions of ash trees in the central and eastern US and up into Canada. All this is to say that the EAB has already been in our area for nearly three years meaning that more and more trees will begin dying…if not treated.
How can they be treated?
A highly effective injectable systemic pesticide is available when applied by a trained arborist who is State of Oregon licensed. The prevention rate is 99 percent and one application lasts for two years.
What can you do if you have an ash tree on your property that you don’t want to lose to the EAB?
Learn how to identify an ash tree. Many online resources are available to help you to do this.
If possible, call an arborist (like Good News Tree Service, Inc.) to preventatively treat your ash tree.
Learn what the signs of an EAB infestation are and then monitor your ash tree. If your ash tree has not been treated, at the first signs of EAB, have your tree treated. Once a tree is 30 percent dead, it is too late to treat it against the EAB. It will have to be removed.
Consider this. The cost of removal and replacement of a dead tree (if it is a street tree and you live in a city where replacement is required), can be equal to the cost of treating a tree for 20 to 30 years.
Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Chile in the southern hemisphere are home to some extremely exotic and unique plants. Join arborist Nathan Lawrence as he treks from the tropical jungle and rain forests to the tip of South America, from Patagonia to the Pampas, and from sea level to high in the Andes Mountain.
