So, those brown, spent flower-like things are fruits? https://felipedelbosque.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/queens-crape-myrtle-fruit.jpg Do birds eat them? We have a lot of visiting birds in our yard.

Hi all, I've posted a similar post on ID that plant forum.. and somebody has recommend that I would get more help from this forum... I live in British Columbia, Canada (zone 8a). My mother-in-law's place has a pear tree that came with the house when they bought it over 30 years ago. Not sure how long the tree has been there before they purchased the house. The tree has been very fruitful every year since they've had it. However, this year it is not doing so well according to my husband. The tree barks near the bottom are drying and cracking. They have a dog who does his business near the trunk of the tree. I've told husband that he should get a fence to keep the dog out. What can we do to stop the cracking? There's been a huge swing in temperature between May and June. We've had a record hottest May and a Fall-weather-like June. Can someone please identify this specific pear tree, and the care for it as well? Thank you.

And it completely depends on what type of soil and where the water is. I have a beech tree that I planted as a #15 in a spot that had been a gravel driveway. I moved it 10 years after planting, during which time it had barely doubled in size, only to discover that the compacted gravel beneath it meant that the root mass was less than a foot deep. I moved it to good soil and five years later it was about 10 times the size it had been when moved. Same deal with a Cedrus atlantica 'Glauca Pendula' that had been planted in a raised bed next to a parking lot at a local nursery. It was scratching customers' cars so they told me that if I could get it out, I could have it. The root 'ball' resembled a tortilla! And the tree was reasonably healthy and attractive. I saw the root mass and figured that there was no way that the tree would survive the transplanting. Today, 10 years or so later, it is magnificent. One of the reasons that I go through the exercise of moving trees rather than just eliminating them is that it is a great way to examine what is going on unseen... I have had no problem gardening around cedars (and I have a lot of them). Totally different than redwoods. The only thing that you can put under a redwood is mulch.

Well, you can't make a written in stone statement that sugarberry looks like this, because there are at least 3 different varieties of Celtis laevigata. There is C. laevigata var. laevigata, C. laevigata var. reticulata and C. laevigata var. texana. I was just going by the 3 species of Celtis listed on the BONAP map, but according to Weakley, there are 6 more species of Celtis that occur in Eastern US. I'm just going to say that's it's a hackberry of some description, and call it a day. Anyone is welcome to go through the list and check every species and it's varieties for a match, but I don't have the time.