Trees and shrubs
Looking at a tree or shrub before you call
A useful note names the plant if you can, the part that changed, and whether the soil, the light, or a fresh wound is part of the story.
Drought, a leaf fungus, and a borer can all leave a tree looking thin. The differences are in which part of the plant failed and how quickly it happened. A Latin name is helpful, but the pattern of the damage is what an assessment uses first.
Start with the whole plant
Stand far enough back to see the crown. Is the top dying while the lower branches are still full? That top-down pattern is common on stressed white-barked birches and is the pattern bronze birch borer follows. Is the interior of a spruce bare while the tips are still green? Michigan State University Extension describes that interior needle drop as the usual look of Rhizosphaera needle cast on blue spruce, with the infection happening on new needles in spring and the browning showing the next year. MSU on blue spruce.
Then get close. Spots on crabapple leaves, sticky shine under a magnolia, sawdust at a trunk crack, or a trunk that goes straight into the ground with no root flare are different notes. Magnolia scale is often noticed first as honeydew and sooty mold, with the large bumps on the twigs. Extension timing for the mobile crawlers in Michigan is late summer. The bumps you can see in July may be an older stage.
Wounds and the calendar
Oak wilt is worth a separate sentence because the timing of a wound matters. MSU Extension says the fungus Bretziella fagacearum spreads when sap beetles visit fresh wounds, and also through roots that have grafted underground. The high-risk window they publish for pruning is April 15 through July 15. Winter is the lower-risk time. A red oak that browns from the top in July needs someone at the tree before it is written off or cut. MSU on preventing oak wilt.
The ground around the plant
A lot of “sick tree” calls are site calls. Mulch piled against the bark, a spruce row planted too close for air to move, a birch set on a hot south slope, salt spray along a major road, or a grade change that buried the roots. Compacted soil after construction and a downspout that dumps on the root zone belong in the note. Those are not diagnoses. They are the conditions a visit has to account for.
If the lawn under the tree is the thing that looks wrong, the shade itself may be the reason. That question is on the lawn stress guide. The service that covers woody plants is plant health care. When you want someone on the property, request an assessment and include the street address.