As most of you know, I love plants. A lot. And I have already lost so many of my house plants within the past year due to various reasons, which has left me feeling terrible. Especially since I've been fairly down, so my motivation to spend time with them is sort of lacking. But after noticing concerning necrosis on both my sister's redbud tree (she planted it from seedpod when she was, like, four) and our cherry tree, we had an arborist come over and look at our trees again. The last time we had the arborist over was last year to take down our ash tree which got nailed by the ash borers, to take a look at our big maple which has been in shock since getting whipped in a windstorm back in 2008, and to give medicine to our plum tree which got torn apart in various storms. We've had a lot of tree tragedy in the past year, so, I kind of lost it when my dad told me that the winter killed our cherry tree. It's not dead yet, but it's getting there. It'll be dead by next year. I remember hepling my dad pick out that tree. I love that tree. It took the place of a dogwood tree that died when I was little, and is in the spot where Molybdenum had initially planted her redbud. So, I kind of claimed that tree... it was my baby. =/
Molybdenum's redbud tree, however, just got hit really hard by carpenter ants. We sprayed it and stuffs, but since it's gotten torn apart in so many storms, it has some spots where its bark doesn't protect it. My dad re-tarred and stuff, but there's not much left of the tree after loosing 2/3 its limbs a few years ago, and losing 1/2 more a year later, and now 2/3 of that because of the ants. Not to mention, a different redbud tree (the tree from which my sister took the seedpod) is due to die within the next 5-10 years because something is wrong with its root system. There is also this silver maple sapling that I made my dad keep and transplant by her redbud several years back. This tree had almost died like three times because deer would keep eating it. And it has finally has become a healthy tree. So today, the arborist said that it's going to become extremely problematic for both us and our neighbor (it's near the edge of our property in the backyard) because it's "too close" to the house, given the size silver maples can grow to be. We have another silver maple on the other side of our backyard that is already really big, that was supposedly leaning toward our house, and I fought so hard for its life a few years back--and managed to convince my parents to spare it. I don't know if I can do that again, especially since this one is closer to the house than the other one. And my neighbor's house is also at risk. So... we have no choice but to either kill the tree or risk killing it by trying to retransplant it. It already found a home where it resides right now. The roots aren't going to make it... if we do the latter...
That's only the tip of the iceberg, but... I can't... I just hurts me. I really love our trees. I would do anything to keep them alive, but they're just dropping one-by-one, and I don't know how much longer they can hold on. I don't know if trees can feel pain, but if they can, I'm sure all of the ones that are half-dead must be in agony right now. I don't want them to feel that.