08/27/2026
so true, start a trend, plant a tree!
Walk outside and look at the base of any tree in your yard. This one glance tells an arborist more than almost anything else:
Does the trunk WIDEN at the ground — flaring out like the base of a wine bottle, with the tops of big roots visible as they dive into the soil?
Or does it plunge into the earth straight-sided, like a TELEPHONE POLE?
If it's the telephone pole: that tree was planted too deep, and it has been slowly dying since planting day — even if it looks "fine" right now.
WHY BURIED FLARE KILLS:
→ The root flare is TRUNK tissue, not root tissue. Trunk bark is built for air; buried under moist soil, it stays wet, softens, and rots — girdling the tree's lifelines in slow motion
→ Roots, meanwhile, chase oxygen UPWARD toward the surface — and often wrap around the buried trunk itself. These STEM-GIRDLING ROOTS tighten over years like a noose, strangling the tree with its own roots.
→ The cruel part is the timeline: a too-deep tree can look acceptable for 5, 10, 15 years — growing slowly, always a bit thin — then decline "suddenly" or snap at the girdle point in a storm. The autopsy always says the same thing: planted too deep. Arborists cite planting depth among the most common killers of landscape trees in America.
HOW IT KEEPS HAPPENING:
→ Trees often arrive from the nursery ALREADY too deep in their own pots/root balls (soil piled against the trunk during production) — so "planting level with the pot soil" repeats the error
→ Add a mulch volcano on top (next post) and you've buried it twice
THE FIXES:
✅ AT PLANTING: dig gently at the trunk until you find the flare — the first big lateral root should sit within an inch or two of the final surface. Remove excess nursery soil off the top of the ball. Plant the FLARE at grade, even if that looks "high."
✅ EXISTING TREES, RECENTLY PLANTED (last few years): carefully excavate the buried flare by hand — pull soil and mulch back until the flare breathes. This one-hour rescue genuinely saves trees.
✅ OLDER ESTABLISHED TREES buried deep: worth a consult — arborists do professional root-collar excavations (air-spade work) and can cut girdling roots. It's real tree medicine.
✅ ALWAYS: mulch flat and wide, pulled back from the trunk — the flare stays visible forever
Wine bottle: a tree for your grandchildren.
Telephone pole: a removal bill in fifteen years.
Go look at your trees today — then share this, because almost nobody's ever been told. 🍷🌳
