February 29, 2024

Don’t Be Over-elm-ed When Planting a Tree

By Amanda Wood, Urban Community Forester

Trees

Even though the weather is still trying to figure out what it wants, spring is around the corner which means trees will be putting out leaves soon! This means that... more

January 16, 2024

A Beginner’s Guide to Pruning

By Maggie Billings, Native Plant and Pollinator Specialist, AmeriCorps Member

Trees

Pruning is a must know when it comes to tree and garden care, but why? Pruning often rejuvenates plants and allows them to grow more efficiently. Taking off old growth... more

October 31, 2023

Protecting Your Broadleaf Evergreens from Frost Damage

By Nicholas Chilson, Garden Technician

Trees

The Eliot and Linda Paine Rhododendron Discovery Garden at the Holden Arboretum has many evergreen Rhododendrons and Azaleas. These plants, although winter hardy, are still susceptible to frost damage, and... more

November 8, 2024

Holden researchers put forest management strategies to the test. Here’s what they found

By Anna Funk, Science Communication Specialist

Other

Private landowners play a critical role in preserving Ohio’s natural heritage where a majority of the state’s eight million acres of forest are privately owned. To manage these forests, land... more

July 3, 2024

The Necessity of Scrub-Shrub and Young Forests

By Jessica Miller Mecaskey, Consulting Forester

Trees

Thick, tangled foliage. Stems teeming in the order of thousands per square meter. A seeming chaos of new growth. To a human, these places are an unnavigable mess of saplings... more

January 29, 2024

Girdling and Invasive Species Management: A Recipe for Healthier Forests

By Chad Knisley, Natural Areas Manager

Trees

We have over 2,000 acres of forest at Holden Arboretum.  Our conservation department cares for these forests, with goals of improving their health and function.  Several years ago, we initiated... more

March 24, 2025

30% of Beech Trees Killed by Beech Leaf Disease, New Study Shows

By Anna Funk, PhD, Science Communications Specialist

Trees

Long-term data reveal 30% mortality and alarming growth slowdown in the native beech trees in northeastern Ohio, near the epicenter of beech leaf disease. KIRTLAND, OH — A decade after... more

June 21, 2024

Continuing our Work on Beech Leaf Disease

By Sarah Kyker, PhD, Postdoctoral Research Associate

Trees

by: David Burke and Sarah Kyker If you live in northeastern Ohio, you probably have heard of beech leaf disease (BLD), which was first spotted in Lake County in 2012.... more

June 7, 2024

Seeking to Understand Disease Resistance in Crabapples

By Maris Hollowell, Emily Lewis, Na Wei

Trees

Unseasonably warm spring weather threw a curveball at researchers at the Holden Arboretum, who study the flowering time, pollinators, and microbiomes of crabapple trees. The crabapple plot at the arboretum... more

January 23, 2024

Can inoculated soils promote healthy urban trees? Preliminary results

By Claudia Bashian-Victoroff, MS, Research Specialist

Trees

Preliminary results from a Holden research project testing soil inoculations for improvement of urban tree plantings. more

December 5, 2023

World Soil Day: Holden’s Soil Ecologists Improving the Odds for Trees in Urban Environments

Soils

Efforts are underway to plant trees in Cuyahoga County’s urban areas by the thousands. In these cities, canopy cover is well below the county average, which brings well-documented ill effects... more

September 26, 2023

A Story for the Ages Lives On: The Jesse Owens Olympic Oak Plaza Dedication 

Trees

On Monday, September 25th, the team at University Circle Inc. dedicated the Jesse Owens Olympic Oak Plaza in Rockefeller Park just north of the Wade Lagoon. Elected officials, community leaders,... more