A new deck, a remodeled living room, a newly finished basement, a new kitchen. Each of these home upgrades makes a home more enjoyable, more attractive and as an investment, more valuable. So, it makes perfect sense that homeowners focus on not only these improvements but also on regular maintenance to protect and enhance these investments.

This same thinking applies to your trees, shrubs and landscaping. Providing everything from new shrubs to a 70-foot tall, mature oak with regular care and maintenance keeps those plants healthy and strong while making the exterior of your home more beautiful. And that enhanced beauty increases the curb appeal – and value – of your home.

But it does take effort, an investment of time and expertise. And that expertise is invaluable as it can make the difference between nipping a problem in the bud before it’s too late, or seeing a disease or pest infestation destroy mature trees, other plants and shrubs.

You may not have the time or the expertise, but there is a solution …

Our Plant Health Care Is The Solution

In far too many cases, the early warning signs of a problem with a tree or shrub may be subtle. If you don’t know what to look for and if you aren’t checking regularly, it can be easy to miss the warnings that a tree or plant is in trouble. Dropping branches, discolored leaves, holes in leaves or an early leaf drop can all be symptoms of what could prove to be a major problem looming.

But while you may not have the time or the expertise required to monitor your trees and shrubs, Hansen’s Tree Service’s ISA Certified Arborists and Plant Health Care Specialists can. The objective of our Plant Health Care Service (PHC Service} is to assess and monitor the health of your trees and shrubs, preventing issues before they arise, or diagnosing problems before it’s too late for successful treatment.

The Certified Arborists and PHC Specialists at Hansen’s Tree Service monitor your trees and shrubs, and offer extremely effective preventative and therapeutic plant health care programs – including pest management – that are a green affordable way to protect your landscaping enhancing the beauty of your home and your environment.

Hansen’s Plant Health Care Program Overview

We recognize that every homeowner, every home, and every environment are different. Soil compositions vary, meaning soil contents in Fenton, Arnold, Springfield, Chesterfield and Ladue are each different from one another. The nutrients in the soils, the amount of natural irrigation, sunlight and other factors are each unique to every property. And homeowners have their individual preferences when it comes to their landscaping.

So, we will take all of this into consideration when we design a plant health care program for you. With Hansen’s Plant Health Care Program, we provide an initial evaluation of your soil, trees, and shrubs. We then use that thorough evaluation to develop a plant health care program that will provide the best possible care for your landscape.

Our program doesn’t end there. We then will monitor the performance of your trees and shrubs on an annual or more frequent basis, depending on your landscape’s size, diversity, and your specific objectives. Our team will also prescribe a customized plan for your home, including preventive and therapeutic treatments. Part of our tailoring process is to work within your budget.

Plant Health Care Begins With Assessment

As the first step in our plant health care program, our PHC Specialists will schedule visits to assess all trees and shrubs on your property, scouting for pests, diseases, and other issues that can affect your landscape.

Our specialists offer you, your trees and landscaping the benefit of their years of training and experience. They’ll thoroughly inspect your landscaping, looking for any signs of new or advanced health issues that could pose or are posing a threat to the health of your plants.

They can spot subtle signs you may easily miss. Small holes in leaves, slight discoloration of leaves or needles, mold or mushrooms growing on or near tree trunks, and even tiny insects which only an expert would recognize as a problem.

Assessment Leads To Preventive Treatment

In best case scenarios, our specialists will spot potential problems early, setting the stage for highly-effective preventive care. Keep in mind that just as with your own health, or even maintaining a vehicle, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure – and it’s also cost-effective. In short, preventing pest infestations and diseases is much more effective and lower in cost than combatting them in their advanced stages.

Just a few of the preventive treatments included in our plant health care services include:

• Emerald ash borer prevention. These pests have devastated the population of ash trees across North America, killing millions of these beautiful trees. Protecting your ash trees from infestation in the first place is the key to saving them.
• Foliar diseases attack the leaves of your trees and shrubs, and include fungi, bacteria and viruses. Specific examples of foliar diseases are powdery mildews, rusts, blotches, blights, anthracnose and blisters. Prevention is nearly always more effective than treatment.
• Deep root fertilization leads to healthier, stronger plants more able to resist disease and infestations.
• Insect pest prevention keeps pests from infesting your plants and is more effective than post-infestation treatments. Our plant care program uses green treatments, which will not harm beneficial insects or wildlife.
• Oak wilt can be devastating to your trees but, with correct preventive treatment, can nearly always be avoided.
• Dutch elm disease is highly preventable with forward-looking treatment and can save the life of the mature oaks that add beauty to your home.

Our Plant Care Specialists Can Provide You With Effective Therapeutic Treatments

If your trees, shrubs, and other plant life are exhibiting symptoms of serious health issues, don’t hesitate to call us – we can help! Our plant health care service can step in, diagnose problems and provide you with aggressive and effective treatments designed to save your plant life and bring those trees, shrubs and other plants back to good health. Our plant health care service can effectively treat a broad spectrum of issues, including:

• Anthracnose
• Aphids
• Bagworms
• Bark beetles
• Borers
• Emerald ash borer
• Japanese beetles
• Nutrient deficiencies
• Scale insects
• Spider mites
• Tent caterpillars
• Twig, leaf, and flower galls
• Webworms

Insects

Insects can harm or even kills plant life. BUT other insects can be effective in killing or minimizing the population of harmful insects. In fact, some species of insects are considered important and invaluable environmentally friendly tools, replacing chemical pesticides.

Our plant care specialists recognize pests and understand which insects can be powerful allies in protecting your trees, shrubs and plants.

They also understand, and will take into consideration in your plant health care program, several important facts about insects and your landscaping, including:

• Insect problems generally are secondary to problems brought on by other stressors like drought, damage, etc.
• Insects are usually beneficial to your plants, helping with pollination while acting as predators to more harmful insect species.
• Insects are an important part of the ecosystem made up by the plants in your yard. Indiscriminate killing of insects without regard for what they do in that ecosystem can be detrimental to a tree’s health.

As far as your plants and trees are concerned, insects which may be considered pests are divided into four categories according to the way they feed. Their characteristic patterns of damage can help with a diagnosis for treatment.

• Chewing insects: Eat plant tissue such as leaves, flowers, buds, roots, and twigs.
• Boring insects: Feed beneath the bark of a tree as larvae. They can also kill twigs and leaves through adult feeding.
• Sucking insects: Insert their beaks into the tissues of leaves, twigs, branches, flowers, or fruit.
• Gall-making insects: Will cause abnormal growths to develop on twigs, leaves, and flowers of trees and shrubs.

All these insects can be harmful to your trees and shrubs and should be taken care of immediately by a certified arborist.

Diseases

Disease comes in many forms and may do very little damage or can quickly kill a plant in one season.

Diseases require a plant host, a suitable environment, and a pathogen (or causal agent) such as a fungus, bacteria, virus, phytoplasmas, mycoplasma, or nematodes. Many diseases attack our landscape plants, many of which require a trained eye to diagnose and prescribe treatments. Fungal organisms that lead to wood decay may require a tree risk assessment by one of our ISA Certified Arborists.

How Much Will A Plant Health Care Program Cost?

The cost of a PHC Program will include the conclusions and recommendations our arborists’ developed during their site visit and assessment. This will also include a personalized plant health care plan based on your landscape’s needs and your objectives. We also understand the importance of developing plans which work with your individual budget and take every necessary step to develop the most cost-effective plan possible.  Our goal is to make sure your trees, shrubs and plants stay healthy and look beautiful without breaking the bank.

Flexibility and individualized programs are what plant health care is all about.

We’re Here To Help You!

Our certified arborists are experts at assessing the health or your trees, shrubs and plants. They have extensive training and years of experience with a broad spectrum of situations and can make excellent recommendations regarding specific plant health care issues, as well as in developing effective plant health care programs.

Contact us today and let our insured, experienced professionals take care of all your tree and landscaping needs, or schedule a plant health care program assessment today by booking online.