Foreward
In 2016 I wrote this article for my friend’s website called Awkward Botany (www.awkwardbotany.com), where I have published other articles that are not as tree-focused. His website is a great place for readers to learn about the awesomeness of plants. At the time this article was written, I was working for a plant healthcare company that worked on disease management of landscape trees. I found, to a frustrating degree, the amount of diseases we were mitigating were preventable with proper culture.
The Problem with 'Yes' Landscapes
I don’t work for a landscape company, nor have I ever worked for one. The company I work for contracts with these companies to do the health care on their landscapes. For example, we scout for insects and diseases, spray pesticides when necessary, make recommendations of proper cultural practices, and fertilize.
Something’s been bothering me for the past two years about the landscapes here in metropolitan southeast Michigan. Both commercial and residential landscapes have at least two things in common: The same plants, and the same poor management of the plants. There is no application of science in most landscape designs. The focus is purely on aesthetics. The clients have no idea they’re being ripped off.
The landscape companies I have experience with seem to think the homeowner is always right.
‘Yes’
You want a Colorado blue spruce in humid Michigan? Sure, no problem. Let’s put six trees within 15 square feet. Don’t bother removing the cage and burlap. We also won’t tell you the massive expense you’ll pay in the future to spray fungicides on your Spruce to keep it alive. If one dies, we’ll just replace it with the same plant.
You want a green hedge? Boxwoods or yews. They’ll be sheared multiple times a year by our crew of expert (and underpaid and exhausted) workers. At the first sign of new growth, we’ll be there mutilating your plants to ensure your plants stay at right angles. You see all of those ripped apart, discolored leaves on your shrubs? Ignore that; plants are meant to be tamed into perfect geometry. Oh, that’ll be an extra charge to spray insecticides and fungicides.
Here’s a plant list of trees and shrubs you can get to add to the monoculture in your neighborhood: crabapple, hawthorn, cherry, honeylocust, blue spruce, oak, red maple, japanese maple, pear, white pine, boxwood, yew, hydrangea, arborvitae, burning bush, and wax begonias.
Why is my hemlock tree neon yellow? We don’t know, let’s just replace it. Why is my norway maple declining? Well, when we planted it, we kept the cage on its rootball, despite this tree having notorious girdling roots. Let’s get you a new one. Why do some of my shrubs rot out? We left the soaker hoses on them for years and kept them running regularly. “Can you guys come spray all of my plants? I just want kill everything before it’s a problem.” Yes.
We’re the best landscapers in town! Our services are top of the line and we guarantee your landscape will look exactly the same as your neighbor’s.
That’s a very sardonic, hypothetical conversation between a homeowner and a landscape company. A sensible company knows you don’t know best. As a homeowner, it is wise to heed the advice of a company’s horticulturalist. Cost is always a consideration for the homeowner. However, the more expensive company is not always the highest quality. Here’s why.
So, you want a Colorado blue spruce?
A responsible company won’t let you plant a blue spruce in a place with wet springs and humid summers. They’ll tell you why it is not a good idea, and they’ll suggest alternatives. For example, a concolor fir (Abies concolor) looks nearly identical to a blue spruce. They’re immune to needlecast diseases, immune to cytospora canker, and can tolerate southeast Michigan’s alkaline soils. In the long run, it is much cheaper to get the right plant, in the right place.
You will pay more for your blue spruce because, not only are you paying for installation, you’re paying to spray fungicides year after year to avoid having a skeleton in your yard. Companies know there is a likelihood of replacing your newly planted blue spruces. So you’re charged for it.
We love Boxwoods and so do you
Maybe you do like the classic, formal look of hedges. And maybe you do actually like the texture offered by a Boxwood or Yew. That’s fine. This is the problem I see literally every single day. Over-shearing.
An appropriate cultivar selection is in fact possible. Cultivars and hybrids exist which only grow to x-amount of feet tall and x-amount of feet wide. Simply read the tag from the nursery. If your landscape company planted the proper plants the first time, they wouldn’t be able to charge you as much as they do in order to “maintain” them. The right plants in the right places need very little maintenance. I will concede, a few plants can tolerate being sheared. Once in a great while is acceptable; but three times a year seems excessive to me.
Excessive shearing stresses out a plant. In fact, certain chemicals released by the open wounds of the leaves attract insects. Wet, exposed tissue serves as a breeding ground for fungi. Some of the problems your shrubs face are directly caused by the shearing itself.
Not to mention, the plant is spending all of its energy regrowing those leaves you continually cut off. There are ways to prune plants with longevity in mind and none of them include the excessive use of motorized shears. A plant grows to reach an equilibrium with its environment. If its environment is adequate for the plant, it will grow. If its environment isn’t favorable, the plant will decline. In other words, if it is growing, let it grow!
What’s a monoculture?
There seems to be only 15 plants which are acceptable to the landscaper. The plant selection is predictable. Certainly there are more than 15 different species of plants you can have in your property. Sure, some redundant species are OK: white pines, oaks, maples. I don’t want to discourage people from exploring new options, though.
Native plants offer easy beauty. They have evolved in your region for millennia, and are therefore adapted to the stresses of your environment. These plants can tolerate both biological and environmental stressors better than non-native plants can. Expenses are saved when you don’t have to pay for disease control. You wouldn’t buy a vehicle, for example, that you know would break down and require fixin all the time.
There are dozens of other shrub options for texture, winter interest, privacy walls, etc., that you don’t have to hire a crew to shear every month. Surprisingly, some large yucca species are hardy in our zone for a different texture. Red-twig dogwoods provide colorful winter interest; there are red cultivars, green cultivars, and even yellow cultivars. Coyote willow is a native to southeast Michigan. It is a thin-leafed, rhizomatous salix species which forms beautiful yellow walls in the fall. An entire, separate article can be written on the subject of alternatives. Just know, there are plenty of species to choose from no matter where you live.
Ask, and you shall receive
This request has come from homeowners and is fulfilled by companies: Can you just spray it? Granting this request is entirely wrong. One cannot, by law and by principle, go around as a pesticide desperado. You live in that environment. Why would you want pesticide in excess? Chemicals are used as a last resort and strictly on an as needed basis.
Appropriate timing, safety precautions, and proper insect identification are all legally required before any sprayer can apply insecticides. Some of the ‘yes’-type companies will comply with all uneducated (and sometimes unsafe) requests.
Some of the appointments I have with customers address very rudimentary horticultural problems. The homeowner’s concerns are legitimate. Most problems they are observing, though, can be avoided with an ounce of foresight. Some of these complications include planting hemlock trees in full sun exposure, or replacing a japanese maple killed by verticillium wilt with another japanese maple. This list could be very long.
‘No’
There’s a myriad of things to go wrong in a landscape. It is an artificial environment containing plants which evolved continents apart. Plants often don’t have the capacity to combat pathogens which they’re not exposed to in their native habitats. But certain issues are impossible to predict. There is a base knowledge one should have before making these kinds of decisions. The “customer is always right” philosophy doesn’t apply in this domain. You should have some creative influence on your landscape; it’s yours, after all. Spend the time in the nursery looking for interesting plants, make a list, and run it by your landscaper. If they say ‘yes’ to all of your choices, fire them. The people you hire can’t be too timid to tell you ‘no’ sometimes.
“Right plant, right place” is the mantra among plant healthcare technicians. We’re the people who have to clean up the messes made by your landscapers. If your landscaper did their job with longevity in mind, I probably wouldn’t have much to do.