I would hold off on the re pot until growing season, usually about Fathers day..By the way, it looks fantastic!! It's pretty happy with all those buds...It must of been well cared for where it was...Can you remember what environment it was in? Do you ask the place what fertilizer they gave it? The origin of that tree would be on a tag..I'd call asap. It was well grown. I am glad you got it before Home Depot was left in charge) I hope they get some like that at mines, that would be a miracle...

"You have to limb up trees on the order of 30 ft. to produce a significant improvement in growing conditions underneath them." Well it may not change anything at high noon, but the sun rises directly in front of these and removing some of the lowest limbs will definitely let more light in behind them for a bit longer each morning. I sit back there for hours at a time and watch how the shade moves around and which limb is causing it, I didn't just come up with this out of nowhere :) I'm not trying to change full shade to full sun, just wanting to give an extra hour or so to a few things underneath and behind them. So maybe not a significant difference, but enough to be worth doing, to me anyway. I just don't want to do anything to cause too much stress that could lead to an early demise which could lead to me having to throw more money at my tree guys. Oak wilt we have, yes. I'll confine my efforts to the hickories. Thanks all!

Thank you Embothrium P. and everyone. This has really been upsetting and yes, my blood pressure has gone up and my stress binge eating kicked into high gear. I'm trying to work through this, but it is a process. First of all, let me assure you that I take responsibility for my failure to get more estimates, but I guess I felt reassured by the very personable arborist with a "reputable" family of "tree professionals". I know I was wrong and should have been able to handle assertively the ongoing train wreck. I made my displeasure known to the guy in charge of the work, and I could tell that I was now the "bitch" customer, but I was not reassured by his saying they would take care of it. So, due to the long holiday weekend, I have put off calling the company. Just as well, as I need time to compose myself. Knowing that I am partly to blame because I did not ask the right questions, such as how the work would be performed, and not insisting on a signed contract with everything spelled out, has just added to my pain, shame and stress. However, I feel that I was taken advantage of (not sure if that's the right word). The salesman, I will call Kevin, did not warn or caution me on the possibility of lawn damage, especially, severe damage. I'm a reasonable person and I know we're making omelets and there might be some broken eggs. He did mention a Bobcat, but again, not the consequences. He did not explain (an I ASSumed that the climber would lower the limbs by rope--that that is how it's done) that the climber would drop limbs from way up and that this might cause damage. I had decided to replace the tree that was removed closest to the street with a new tree. They would use a stump grinder and they would remove all the grindings (would leave if no transplant). Here again, I expected that the new tree would be back filled with new topsoil (if they didn't bring any, I had a whole pile they could have used!). I trusted that this would be done. I had to leave for about an hour and when I returned the tree was planted and they were finishing up putting down mulch. Like an idiot, I noticed that what was still visible looked like grindings (but my mind rationalized that what I was seeing was just on the top) and I didn't ask about it, like "you DID remove the grindings, right? or What did you do with the grindings?" It wasn't until I was unsuccessfully trying to go to sleep that night, that it occurred to me that these yayhoos had used the grindings to back fill. When I call I will insist that they return and replant the tree properly. The crew chief actually asked me if he wanted them to rake up all the smaller twigs where the big oak was removed. What? I said, yes. If you don't, I'll have to do it. Again, I just assumed clean up, of course, was just part of the service. He then shouted back to do it and I kind of got the feeling that this was a real hassle and expected answer was no. They proceeded to rake with what I'd call "not serious" or professional rakes. In fact, this crew was totally reliant of using machines rather than muscle power. I saw a huge auger in one of the trucks when I returned which they must have used to plant the new tree. This was not a big tree. I hope I'm not being too judgemental, but my over all impression that this was a pretty lazy crew. Also, speaking of clean up, they made no effort to remove the large amount of (expected) saw dust. It would have really impressed me if they had brought some blowers and made a stab of removing all the sawdust from the front of my house--patio and sidewalks. No attempt to remove the sawdust in the grassy area around the tree closer to the street. I'm pretty sure this will kill the grass it if it's not removed. I'm really worried that real damage has been done to the surface roots of the remaining oaks. I watched as a huge limb about 8 feet long, crashed down and speared the ground about a foot from trunk of one of them. Just the thought of the psi crashing down on the oak I am trying to save, after spending a lot to have it root fed by injection and the other way, is just outrageous. The Bobcat also exposed and shredded shallow roots that I think belong to the other oak. This was on a slope that the Bobcat had to go up and down many many times to remove all the limbs, most very heavy. Again, worried about how this will affect the tree and how this slope area can be repaired right now to prevent the erosion that is inevitable. I want them to "make it right", but I'm not sure what I should ask for. How can they make it right at this time of year? Grass seed put down now is not going to sprout and will wash away before spring. Straw put down now will blow or wash away or compact before spring. Any topsoil put down now to try to correct the compaction will wash away before spring. Same goes for the swale, that I so carefully construction behind the retaining wall that I carefully reconstructed after years of erosion--all by hand, shovel and wheelbarrow, so necessary to handle drainage. It looks to me like it needs to be repaired by aproper build up of topsoil and reseeded in the spring. I agree, Embothrium P. that a neighbor's property is a neighbor's property, whatever they have on it. This neighbor has been cooperative on some of my other projects with prior discussion and approval, but very unpleasant when not. I still haven't talked to him, but again, this is another aspect of the whole disaster that is causing me a lot of anxiety. I'll be calling Kevin on Monday. One of the questions I'm going to ask is, "would you have this kind of work done on your property with the use of a Bobcat on ground so soft, the damage caused by tree cutters not carefully lowering limbs and sloppy cleanup?" The answer would have to be "no". Who would? This has been one of the biggest and costliest mistake I hope never to make again. I also feel a responsibility to write an honest review on Angie's List. Hopefully, it will prevent any potential customers from making the same mistakes.

as with all pruning.. if you have a goal.. its easy to decide how to accomplish it ... the tree is currently in its natural state ... and that is fine for the tree the hard part.. is predicting whether that goal will change a decade or 2 down the line ... its hard to tell ... from the first pic.. when it might start infringing on the sidewalk and road ... and at that point ... something will have to be done .. and it might be hard to accomplish such ... by that time ... [and its usually a problem.. when some utility comes along.. and massacres it] whereas ... if you start now ... you may be able to guide its future growth .... to avoid potential future problems ... i hope that makes sense ... its a bit early ... ken