Hi everyone,
Pardon my venting, but I had to tell some people who can really
understand.
I came home from work last night (after a particularly lousy
week too) only
to find my best tree, a beautiful Chinese Elm, sitting in the
kitchen
sink...sans pot. It had been significantly damaged. This is the
first tree
that I've ever been able to keep alive for a significant length
of time. And
it had been thriving. I was so excited to see it begin to come
to leaf this
spring. It didn't take much examination and a pathetic look on
my dogs'
faces to figure out what had happened. I had just put the tree
back in its
usual spot from its wintering spot a few days earlier. The
temps have gotten
so much better, I was letting my tree get some sun. Well, it
got more than
just sun.

I repotted the tree, but it looks just awful. There was really
bad damage to
the tree limbs and roots. Apparently it made quite a chew toy
for the dogs.
It's funny (sad really) they've never show even the slighted
interest in any
of my trees, plants or flowers in the past.

Have any of you ever brought back a tree after serious
animal-inflicted
damage?

If it's not dogs, it's (cover up your ears, Nina!) squirrels, or
chipmunks, or (if they're on the ground) armadillo or rabbits.
We've all -- or at least many of us have -- had things like that
happen. A few years ago, a squirrel next -- complete with mama
and 5-6 babies -- fell on top of my wife's azalea and a crape
myrtle. Both were significantly "restyled" and both have
recovered nicely -- the azalea better than the crape myrtle.

Your immediate chore is as a tree nurse. Hope that the roots
didn't dry out too much. Broken branches should be cut cleanly
and covered with cut paste, if you believe in the stuff.

While it's on the mend, you need to look at it carefully from all
sides; often you'll find a new front, a new tree, and new ideas
out of disaster. Maybe by NEXT spring you will be ready to do
the redesign that has come to you in a burst of light during the
interim. Meanwhile, since it sounds like this was THE tree in
your household, you need to get one or two other trees. Work on
them, instead of loving the injured one to death.

And Good Luck. You may end up with a better tree.

Jim Lewis - - Tallahassee, FL - Only where
people have learned to appreciate and cherish the landscape and
its living cover will they treat it with the care and respect it
should have - Paul Bigelow Sears.

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