Hi All, Jean, thank you for the link help! Brandon, the Garden Photo Gallery is the right place. However, I had to click on Great Gardens in the box on the right to post my picture. I picked "Great Gardens" because there wasn't an "Ugly Damage" category. The categories were all pretty names. LOL The damage on the tree is pointed toward the southwest so sun damage in freezing temperatures could be a possibility. We did have a week this Winter where it warmed up to the 60's for a couple/three days then immediately dropped back down to freezing again. I always worry about my crape myrtles when that happens but I guess I should worry more about the magnolia. The parking lot was landscaped a few years ago to reflect our new ordinance requiring all new parking lots to have landscaping instead of being barren black top. The guys who work at planning and zoning next door were nice enough to line the lot with many different shrubs and ornamental grasses. They did great work. The lot is long and skinny and one-way. At the entrance to the left is a triangular heavily mulched shrub bed with evergreen short shrubs across the front and the magnolia sitting behind them. Our golden vickory privet hedge lines it on the property line. So, the magnolia has a nice corner to set in. I must confess I always wanted a magnolia and don't have the room in my yard now. So, when the city representatives (this was very kind of them by the way) asked what I'd like to have there (since it was so close to our yard), you all can guess what I wanted. LOL That is why I treat this magnolia as my own even though it actually belongs to the city. They are pretty good about mulching and weeding. I am the one who sneaks over there at 5:00, feeds,weeds, and waters it during droughts. :-) That is why it is quite healthy other than the damage. It has the most wonderful smell when it blooms and it is just now big enough to really take off. Thanks everyone! J

Welcome to the forum, Lynette, I remember having saturated soil, and not all that long ago. That's Oklahoma for you....swinging from one extreme to another! Pines are having a lot of issues with various bark beetles in recent years in Oklahoma and it seems to be getting worse, so a pine is not what I would choose if I wanted a tree that was going to live long and stay healthy. It would be quite frustrating to plant one, have it adjusting and doing well for a couple of years, and then having the bark beetles kill it. We had a large Eldarica pine tree in our front yard in Fort Worth, but it was not planted close to the house because pine trees get very large over the years and if you put them too close to the house, they will get increasingly too close to it as they enlarge and then will begin to grow crooked as they attempt to "lean away" from the house. We planted ours 20' from the house and only about 12' from the front sidewalk, which was almost too close to the sidewalk as the tree grew. This summer, a neighbor of ours lost a row of pines that had been planted along the fence line by a previous property owner about 25 years ago. They were huge--easily 30' to 40' tall and served as a wonderful privacy screen. I've been watching those trees grow for the 16 years since we first bought our property here, and they grew really fast....but a wildfire got that section of them this summer and now they're gone. They looked great for all of fall and winter every year, but often struggled in the heat and drought here. Based on watching them all these years, I've never planted a pine tree in our yard here because I want a tree that can tolerate our summer weather and still look good and stay healthy. I don't know that watering the Maple made it weak. It is more likely that the two back-to-back drought years were hard on it. Any tree can snap in wind. There's only so much wind force that any tree can tolerate, and even healthy, high-quality trees can break in a wind storm or in an ice storm. I've mostly stuck to planting oak trees on our property because of their hardwood and longevity, with a few understory trees like deciduous magnolia, chaste tree, various hollies and desert willow that flower and give us periods of color. We have about 10 acres of woodland although we built our house on higher ground in what essentially was fallow farm land/cow pasture that had been left to grow as it choose for about 25 years and it only had two trees that we kept when we cleared the land to build the house--one post oak and one large native peacan tree. Since building the house, I have made my decisions on what to plant in the yard based on what I've observed is healthy and happy in the woodland. I like Susan's suggestion of the Chinese Pistache. They are very good trees. I'm going to link the website of the Oklahoma Forestry Service because it has links to several guides that detail great trees for various parts of the state. Maybe you'll see something there that you like. Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: Tree Selection Guides at OFS Website

I can recommend a cosmetic surgeon to replace the butt you lost. Strong & tall fences make the best neighbors. Say "Hi" to Stan for us. We all have one.

Final update... So I did take her to the internal medcine specialist, and I did do the ultrasound of her other organs and heart because the internist wanted to see how far along the cancer was in her other organs as well as check out her heart to see if it could stand the medications. Well the ultrasound checked out pretty fine and she was pronounced fit to undergo treatment... The strange part is that the vet even wrote in her report that "...what is baffling is that Kitty has been feeling relatively normal apart from her pathologic fractures for the last 8 months or so...Surprisingly Kitty is still feeling well and does not appear obviously sick at this time which is great." So I took her home full of hope. But last Monday I noticed that she was having a bit of trouble getting up after laying down for a while. The next day it became worse and she wasn't putting much weight on her back left leg and in fact it was bending "backwards" at the knee (so that from her toes to her knee section were on the floor when she walked... if you can picture that). And I thought that maybe I shouldn't have amputated her leg at such an old age and that her back leg couldn't compensate for the extra weight... The next day (Wednesday) I noticed that she was even having trouble with her back right leg and could not walk more than a few steps without laying down for a bit. By Thursday morning I knew it was time. She couldn't walk at all. But I can't believe how quickly it went. She was still feeling fine on Sunday, but by Thursday I had no choice but to put her down. I just hate it because her mind was still all there, she was still alert and responsive. It's only her body that gave out. But I didn't have a choice. I couldn't let her suffer. If it wasn't Thursday it would have had to be Friday or Saturday... I knew that... and she was in pain. So I had to let her go. I am just so hurting right now. It's the first time in 21 years that I haven't had at least 1 cat with me. I still wake up and expect to see her, or hear her meowing for her breakfast. When I come home I expect to see her running to greet me. I know that this is all my own selfish pain, and that I really did the right thing for her. I comfort myself knowing that I gave her the best 13 years she could have asked for (I don't even know how old she was... she was a stray barn cat that was only skin and bones when I found her...). I also know that I tried and did everything I possibly could for her. My vet said it was probably because a tumor was growing up against her spine that caused her legs to go... I guess that's pretty likely... but it was just so fast acting. I love her so much. But I have to believe that she is now with Jelika and the two of them are happy and pain free, and that somehow... someway.... they will wait for me and we will be together again some day. Thank you all for your encouragement through this entire ordeal. You are all amazing people, and you are much stronger than I. Wishing you nothing but health and happiness for both yourselves and your pets, M