All trees bloom, but not all have showy flowers. Flowers are beautiful and provide habitat for hummingbirds, butterflies and bees. Join us this week to learn more about including flowering trees in our communities.

Species Spotlight – Texas mountain laurel is a standout this time of year. Listen this week to learn more about this sweet scented tree.

Join us this week as we wrap up our discussion of the 3Rs – Readiness, Response and Recovery. We’ve talked about how to prepare for a disaster and how to respond to the event. It’s now time to discuss how to help your community recover their trees and community forest. After all, trees are key to healthier, happier communities and we can make a difference.

This week’s species spotlight is loblolly pine, the species at the center of the recovery efforts in the Lost Pines area near Bastrop, Texas. Join us this week to learn more about this economically important tree.

Join us this week as we continue our exploration of the 3Rs – Readiness, Response, and Recovery. Proper, timely response to an emergency is key to keeping the public safe and protecting our trees.

Species Spotlight – Carolina cherry-laurel is a small, evergreen tree that bees love. Listen this week to learn more about this Texas native tree.

Planning for storms and pests is key to protecting our trees and ourselves. Listen this week to find out how to ready your community forests and the trees in your yard for a natural disaster.

Species Spotlight: Wild Olive, Cordia boissieri

This beautiful, small native evergreen can bloom 11 months out of the year in the Rio Grande Valley and is grown across the southwest. Listen to learn more about this unique tree.

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People are fascinated with big, old trees and they, often desperately, want to know how old they are. Listen this week to learn several techniques to estimate the age of your trees and learn the keys to caring for them.

Species spotlight: Quaking aspen is the most widely distributed tree in North America which puts on an amazing display of fall color. Listen this week to learn more.

Emerald Ash Borer, or EAB, is a serious threat to our ash trees that has been marching across the U.S. and Canada since 2002. Join us this week to learn how to spot their damage, identify the culprit and what you can do to help.

Species Spotlight: The Kentucky coffee tree was used by early settlers as a coffee substitute. This is the only species in North America in the genus Gymnocladus and has no serious pest or disease issues. Kentucky coffee tree is a great choice in lawn areas because it allows sunlight to reach the ground and is drought tolerant.

Oak wilt is a devastating fungal disease in Texas that has wiped out many large, beautiful trees. Join us this week to learn the keys to diagnosing, managing and avoiding this disease.

Tree of the Week: Post oak

Post oak is the not so secret ingredient in some of the best barbecue Central Texas has to offer. This tough, native Texas tree can be sensitive to building and development. Learn more about post oak in this week’s episode of “Trees Are Key.”

Curious if you can bare-root a 6.5 inch Shumard oak to transplant it? Wonder if your tree is hollow and therefore more likely to fall over in a storm? Join us for this week’s episode “Advanced Arboriculture is Key” to learn how advanced techniques can answer these questions.

Pneumatic excavation, resistance drilling and sonic tomography are advanced arboriculture activities that can be used to improve or assess our trees.

This week’s tree of the week is American Holly — a tough, native evergreen that can be used in many sites across Texas.

Have you ever picked a sweet, ripe peach off of a tree and taken a bite just to have the sun warmed juice run down your chin? Edible trees elicit a passion that rivals common sense. We have seen people line up hours early on a bitterly cold January morning to get a free fruit tree at the San Antonio Jammin’ Jams Fruit Tree Adoption. Join us this week to learn more about fruit and nut trees.

We can’t talk about edible trees without talking about our state tree, the pecan, our tree of the week. From pecan pie to butter pecan ice cream to pecan sandies this native nut has earned its place on our table.

As we come to the end of 2015, let’s reflect on what we have learned and covered so far in Trees Are Key. It has been eight months packed with information about key tree basics, keys to caring for trees, key tree programs and hopefully, a little fun along the way. Have a Happy New Year!