Father’s Day is almost here. If you have trees, this could be the best gift that keeps on giving.
We live on the edge of a woodland belonging to our neighbors. We also have our own line of old trees, including a tulip poplar and a couple of sweet gum trees known professionally as Liquidambar styraciflua and, by those who must clean up their mess, as a total nuisance tree. These gumball trees not only make it impossible to go barefoot in your yard, they do so throughout the early spring to middle summer. Barefootin’ isn’t the only thing these prickly spheres keep you from enjoying. They will slide your foot right out from under you as you try to negotiate a sidewalk with these little bombs strategically located.
The tree drops a hoard of spiny balls early in the year. You think this must have emptied out the tree for sure, until you look up. There are the branches still dangling another wave of bristle ready to drop with the slightest wind. This goes on for several months. Then there are the seedlings cropping up in the flowerbeds and potted plants. You have to be quick at pulling them out or they will rise up into a well-rooted tree seemingly overnight.
This past winter has been tough on trees and shrubs all over the U.S. Our sweet gums have dropped many small, twiggy branches along with their brutal balls but there are still dead branches hanging on our trees, just as stubborn to fall as the last of the gumballs. This is where an ergonomically balanced Oregon Pole Saw would come in handy.
If you have wrestled with any number of long limb cutters, you know that “ergonomically balanced” isn’t just a difficult phrase to say. You and I can appreciate not feeling like a circus performer trying to keep a heavy saw on the end of a pole balanced and cutting where we want. The OREGON Pole Saw is built to balance by the user, without gymnastics. It extends from seven feet three inches to ten feet four inches.
Besides balance, there is no gas and oil to mix or cords to pull to get it started. It is battery operated, one of a full line of power tools from the Oregon Cordless Tool System. Visit the OREGON® 40V MAX* Cordless Pole Saw PS250 website for full specs, models available, and to find a retailer in your area.
No worries, either, about us cutting down any of our trashy trees. We just want to trim them. Even though we malign them, we also know that the migrating finches feast on the seeds in those crummy balls. We love watching their antics pulling out the seeds as they swing and sway on the gumballs high up in the trees. And the bright yellow the leaves turn in the fall fill the woods with a golden glow. Gumball trees are a trashy treasure, filling a niche in the nature of things.
By Dan Heims, President, Terra Nova Nurseries, Inc.
Photographs courtesy of Terra Nova Nurseries, Inc.
Terra Nova’s breeders have created a series of outstanding world-class echinaceas that are consistent in size, bloom power, color intensity and are a pollinator buffet. What’s not to like.
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We live on the edge of a woodland belonging to our neighbors. We also have our own line of old trees, including a tulip poplar and a couple of sweet gum trees known professionally as Liquidambar styraciflua and, by those who must clean up their mess, as a total nuisance tree. These gumball trees not only make it impossible to go barefoot in your yard, they do so throughout the early spring to middle summer. Barefootin’ isn’t the only thing these prickly spheres keep you from enjoying. They will slide your foot right out from under you as you try to negotiate a sidewalk with these little bombs strategically located.
Besides balance, there is no gas and oil to mix or cords to pull to get it started. It is battery operated, one of a full line of power tools from the Oregon Cordless Tool System. Visit the 
