I'll bite. Please post some pics of the tree so it can be identified. Pic of whole tree, also close up of leaves, trunk, flowers, seeds. And of the holes too!

Perhaps the holes are caused by borers. We don't have woodpeckers in Australia.

Crystal, if you see these posts, perhaps you could post some pictures of the tree and the holes, both close up and far away.

I don't have a clue what it is but it doesn't have flashing which anything on a roof should. Speaking of roof,something isn't right about the way shingles are installed. I'd have a roofer check roof before closing.

Trees will grow like that if a vine wraps around them. I can't tell from the photo if the vine is still around it, but I can see vines hanging from it.

No, Ivy wouldn't do that because it climbs by surface aerial roots. To get the effect it needs to be a spiral twiner.

The variegated plant is a type of Aglaonema. Its common name is Chinese Evergreen. The dracaena looks really bad, when any type of houseplant has leaves that are turning yellow and brown like that it is always a watering problem. My guess is that it has been kept either too wet or too dry - or both When your house plants are dry, a "cup of water" isn't enough to properly water them, you need to saturate all of the soil in the pot and then let it dry out again. Never set houseplants on a watering schedule (once a week is not how to water!!) Water them ONLY when the soil becomes dry to the touch. If you think your plant will be alive for one more day without watering it, then don't water it!! Overwatering plants is the frequency of watering (too often) and not the amount of water given at any one watering. When any plant has yellow and brown leaves like your dracaena, fertilizing it will only make the plant worse because it is under so much stress. If you were to take it out of its pot and look at its roots I am sure that most of the roots on it are dead. Fertilizer is only for healthy growing plants.

Hope this helps, good luck with your plants.

Definately not Schefflera.

There are quite a number of hardy Shefflera species that would easily survive most winters in VA. But the plant pictured is not one of them.

I imagined that arboricola was the one meant by the OP, since that's the one widely known as a common house plant. It's a z.10+ plant.

Considering the fine bunch of men that came out of the baby boomer generation , what is it/was it with women of the same era? I heard about one today that ordered an ice cream cone and handed clerk a $5 bill. As she waited,she looked at the man on stool next to her and found herself looking into those famous eyes of Paul Newman. Just then the clerk arrived to hand her the ice cream and her change. She left and after getting outside went to taste the cream. She had the change in one hand and nothing in the other. She returned to counter expecting to find clerk still holding the cone. As she stood looking dumbfounded Mr Newman said "you put it in your purse".

Stax, I've participated in conversations with sushipup in another forum for many years. She's a very nice person and I personally appreciate her vigilance in trying to identify annoying or nefarious people who bump old threads and often bury spam or spam-like links in them. Or set up to do same.

No one bats 1.000. If she strikes out a time or two, her batting average is high and the few strikeouts now and again don't undo the benefit of the vast majority of times she hits a home run.

(Yeah, baseball season is starting).