Considerations for Growing in a Hot Climate

Madison Law from Davey's South Houston office talks about working in locations with extreme heat and her Davey experience.

In this episode we cover:  

• How Madison works in extreme heat (1:15)
• What Madison does for Davey (2:53)
• Houston in the winter (4:01)
• How Houston trees handle extreme weather (5:30)
• Optimal time to plant in Southern states (6:31)
• Live Oaks & White Oaks (8:46)
• Trees Madison loves (10:13)
• How Madison became an arborist (12:00)
• Madison's experience in the male dominated industry (12:46)
• What Madison gets out of her job (14:05)
• Rainfall in Houston (15:00)
• Properly watering in hot climates (16:03)
• Mulching in extreme heat (17:52)

To find your local Davey office, check out our find a local office page to search by zip code.  

To learn more about caring for trees in hot, dry conditions, read our blog How Often to Water Trees During a Drought.

Connect with Davey Tree on social media:
Twitter: @DaveyTree
Facebook: @DaveyTree
Instagram: @daveytree
YouTube: The Davey Tree Expert Company
LinkedIn: The Davey Tree Expert Company 

Connect with Doug Oster at www.dougoster.com. 

Have topics you'd like us to cover on the podcast? Email us at podcasts@davey.com. We want to hear from you!    

Transcript

Doug Oster: Welcome to the Davey Tree Expert Company's podcast, Talking Trees. I'm your host, Doug Oster. Each week, our expert arborists share advice on seasonal tree care, how to make your trees thrive, arborists' favorite trees, and much, much more. Tune in every Thursday to learn more, because here at the Talking Trees podcast, we know trees are the answer.

This week, I'm joined by Madison Law. She's a sales and service coordinator for the Davey Tree Expert Company in South Houston, Texas. How are you doing, Madison? How are you doing?

Madison Law: [laughs] I'm doing pretty good, thank you for asking. Yes, we're all melting down here.

Doug: We started talking before we came on about the heat, and I was telling Madison that we have a break. We've got one day of 72 degrees, and you should have saw your look on your face, Madison. Tell me today, or when it broke the record, was it yesterday?

Madison: Yesterday, and all week, we've had record-breaking heats in Houston. Yesterday, it was 105 with the feel like of somewhere around 116 with the humidity.

Doug: I want to start off talking about how do you work in that. How do you work in feels like 116 degrees, or do you? Do you have to be outside when it's like that, or can you do inside work that day?

Madison: My job is a little different from being a technician or a tree crew guy. I'm inside, outside all day, just depending on what I need to do. When you're outside, it's horrendous. Oh my gosh, you're sweating so much. You look like you jumped in a pool after being outside for 5 minutes. The most important thing is hydration, hydration, hydration, because heat stress and heat exhaustion are super big issues that we face.

We are always telling our guys, "Hey, make sure you're watching out for each other. Make sure you're drinking enough water. Always have Gatorades, liquids, and just watch out for each other," because sometimes a guy in a tree might not be as eager or think about, "Oh, I need to drink water right now," because he's worried about getting that tree pruned. The guy on the ground can be like, "Hey, did you drink any water in the last 5 minutes or in the last 40 minutes?" Everyone has their own threshold.

Doug: Even in our climate, yesterday I had a Davey Arborist over. We do a video together, Rob Kruljac, and he said, "Can you fill this up for me?" It was the biggest honking water cooler thing I've ever seen in my life, and it was filled with ice still. Yes, even in our climate, hydration is important. Tell me a little bit about your job, though. What do you do for Davey?

Madison: As a sales and service coordinator, I'm in charge of managing our fleet of technicians here in the South Houston office. The building that I'm in is two different offices, so it's the South and the North Houston, and we're divided by the Interstate 10 going through Houston. We service everything from all the way down to Galveston. We take care of the Goose Island State Park tree in Rockport, and my job is to manage the technicians. I schedule their routes. I talk to clients. I do site visits. I help with the tree crews. Sometimes I'll bring them things they need.

I can help with my truck. I help the arborists sometimes. I'll go out to clients with them or help them meet a client expectations, and then I also help in the office. I'll answer phones. I'll create work orders sometimes. I like to say that I'm a Jill of all trades.

Doug: Yes, I was going to say, is that all you do?

[laughter]

Doug: Tell me about the winter. What is your climate like in the winter?

Madison: It's nothing like what you guys have up there, I'm sure. It gets chilly down here. The hardest part is going through a freeze, like what we had back in '21. I know you probably saw it on the news. Texas, we're just really not equipped to dealing with that. When that hard freeze came through, it was a real struggle for our city, and the plants especially took a hit.

We're still seeing the after-effects of it to this day, especially with trees like Japanese blueberries. They took a really hard hit. A lot of them didn't come back. Italian cypresses also weren't doing so good. When those trees get stressed like that from that winter freeze damage, then that's when you have the problem with the insects coming in because they're taking advantage of those sick trees and they're making them worse.

Doug: What's interesting is that, even though our climates are so different, it's the same problems. We had the same thing up here where we had an extreme cold event, and I was at a property yesterday and I was looking at boxwoods here and still trying to recover from that freeze. I guess we all have it in one way or another. With that kind of heat, though, during the summer, tell me about the effect on the trees. I guess, are they used to it or is it stressing them? Talk about that a little bit.

Madison: Yes, of course. The heat going from one extreme to the next, right, all in one year, can be pretty hard on them. A lot of the trees that we have that are native, like our live oaks or our pecan, our state tree, they're used to that heat. They typically can handle it pretty well if they're maintained right. You keep a generally good watering schedule. Then some trees, unfortunately, they crash and burn, for lack of a better term, which is why, planting in the summer, you can do for trees, but it's not really recommended. Usually planting in the fall or even in the spring would be better.

Doug: Yes, so we're the same way, which is, again, cool. Fall planting for us is going to be beginning soon. When is the optimal time there to plant trees?

Madison: I would recommend the fall. The fall is usually the best time to plant trees because, during the winter seasons, the trees will start working on growing their roots. Then in the springtime, they're working on producing flowers and putting out new leaves.

We want to get them established and we want to keep them healthy during their years of growing. Planting younger trees can have a better success rate than the bigger trees because it's less stress. It's going to be stress either way, it's just the younger trees have a better chance.

Doug: For us, fall planting basically begins soon. Do you do it the same way or do you have to wait until things really cool off? Is fall like November for you? Because seriously, that's the-- We're still planting nowadays in November, but there was a time when the ground would be frozen in November.

Madison: No, that's a good question. It's really hot right now. There's a lot of times where you even spend Christmas in shorts because it's so hot still. I think last year I did spend Christmas in shorts. I was out on the patio. We were grilling because it was just so hot.

Doug: Now, Madison, I officially hate you. You got to love to be grilling on Christmas in shorts.

Madison: Trust me. I would rather experience just one of those Hallmark Christmas winters just once.

Doug: Yes. You only want to experience it once, believe me. We're getting easier and easier up here. I grew up in Cleveland, which they know how to move snow. When I was a kid, they had to close school for a week because there was so much snow. Winter has definitely changed. You talked about live oaks. That is a big deal down there, right? That is a cool tree for you, right?

Madison: Oh, yes. Our live oaks are one of our biggest feature trees we have here in Houston. A lot of the Houston Area Forestry Council, their symbol, which I'm a part of, a lot of their trees and their symbol are live oaks. They're great trees. We also would recommend white oaks a lot because they're a lot more resistant to oak wilt, which is what we have a problem with over in the west side of Texas, like in San Antonio or Austin areas.

Thankfully, we don't really have it here in Houston. We're just trying to keep that biodiversity inclusive just in case. Because if we lost our live oaks, it would be huge, hugely detrimental to our city.

Doug: I mentioned this a lot, that I live in an oak forest and I am battling oak wilt. It is devastating because when you have these large oak trees, you got to decide if and what you're going to treat. Again, what's interesting is that I'm doing the same thing. When I do lose an oak, I'm putting something else in its place to increase the diversity in the forest.

What would be some other trees down there? I know we always say right tree, right place, but what are some trees growing down there that you love, or maybe one that doesn't get planted as much as it should when you find the right spot?

Madison: Ooh, that's a really great question. I personally really love willow trees. I think they're really cool when they're mature. They offer a great new shape to an environment. They look really nice when they're mature. Right place, right time. Gosh, that's always so difficult. I wish we could have more maples. I see a lot of people plant red maples around and it gives a lot of really nice fall color.

Doug: With the willow, I think of a willow up here as needing lots of water, like being next to the lake. Is that not true down there? We're talking about the same type of willow?

Madison: Right, so from the Salix family or genus, they do require a lot of water, and thankfully, Houston gets a lot of water. We also have a lot of streams like the Buffalo Bayou. I just don't think people plant them as often because they, when they're growing, they look a little spindly or not as full as like if you planted a magnolia, which also are really great trees. I really like magnolias too. I don't know, I've just always like the whimsicalness of a willow.

Doug: When they get big, they really are beautiful. They are unparalleled. It's a unique-looking, beautiful tree.

Madison: They really are.

Doug: Tell me a little bit about how this job is right for you. How did you get into this?

Madison: I actually wanted to be a theater major when I went to college, but I got a pamphlet from Stephen F. Austin State University. It's a school up in Nacogdoches, East Texas. They were showing a picture of ax throwing. My dad was like, "Hey, that looks cool. Let's go there." I was, "I suppose." I went to the forestry department, fell in love with tree science. I interned with Davey in 2017. Before my internship was up, they offered me a position to come back to when I graduated in a year. I've been here for five years.

Doug: Awesome. What's it like when you're working in an environment when it's male-dominated? The tree industry is male-dominated. I've had a lot of women on, climbers included. Talk about your experiences in dealing with that.

Madison: I worked on a tree crew with a bunch of guys, and that was fine. Then I was a PHC tech, and that's a lonely position. I don't know if you've ever talked to a bunch of spray techs before. Sometimes it's nice, because my favorite bit is going down the road, driving this big truck. Other people who are driving big trucks, they look over and they're like, what? They do like a double take real quick. "Is that a woman driving that truck?" "Heck yes, move over, man. I got places to be."

Then it also comes with its trials. Construction sites were my least favorite job sites because I'm just surrounded by all these people and I'm all alone. From a woman's perspective, that's a lot different than if it were a guy alone on a job site. Overall, I really enjoyed it. I like what I do. I love what I do. It's been a great ride and I'm hoping to be a sales arborist soon.

Doug: Nice. Tell me a little bit about what you do get out of your jobs.

Madison: I really enjoy talking to people. So many people have so many different and interesting life stories that they can share. I have a lot of clients that love when I call them and I like calling them. I keep a whole list on my computer of all the people I like to send Christmas cards to, all the clients I like. I get the fulfillment of helping people not only have better green spaces around their homes, but also educating them about trees, so that even if they decided that they didn't want to be with us anymore, that's fine. They would have the better knowledge going forward.

Doug: That's awesome. What kind of rainfall do you get down there in Houston? Do you get good rainfall or no?

Madison: We get a lot of rainfall. We get a lot of rainfall. We're actually prone to flooding quite often. When Harvey happened, that hurricane that came through, we got a lot of flooding. It comes and it goes. We're not getting a lot of rain right now. We're actually in a bit of a dry spell. There's actually a place up the road that we haven't had enough rain that the mulch caught on fire. It's been burning for I think five days now at this point.

Doug: Wow. Is it like a big mulch pile

Madison: Yes, it's one of those places where they take debris and they sell mulch in truckloads. Their mulch pile caught on fire.

Doug: Wow. Let's talk a little bit in that climate about watering the right way for the trees. I just, again, when you say it feels 116, that just seems so brutal. What's the best way to water those trees down there?

Madison: That's a little tricky because it really depends. Because a lot of factors go into how you should water your tree. One of the biggest issues we run into is a lot of people overwater their trees. They go outside and they're like, "Oh my gosh, it's so hot. We haven't had any rain. I have to water my trees." They'll do that five times a week. They'll leave their watering system on for an hour at a time.

Then they call us because they're like, "Well, my trees look sad. I don't understand. Is it the heat? Should I water more?" It's like, "Well, you should probably water a little less." I've always been told that watering should mimic rainfall. Where it's infrequent but deep. A lot of people also have a lot of landscaping underneath their trees, which then also changes how much we're watering, right? Because if you plant a whole bunch of ferns under your tree, they like their water a lot more than your giant live oak would do. It really depends on the situation.

Doug: I always recommend people plant a bench under a tree. That's the best thing. Because people try to grow things under maples and big oaks. Those trees are taking up almost everything. Just a nice place to sit in the shade. Down there, let's talk a little bit about mulching to keep that soil evenly moist. Is that part of the process in Texas?

Madison: You do have a lot of people that do mulch and it helps retain that moisture. The problem comes from when people add too much mulch. Then they're causing lack of oxygen to get to the roots of the trees. We see it all the time, especially with volcano mulching. As I'm sure you guys do sometimes see where the mulch goes right up to the trunk and it shouldn't look like a telephone pole sticking out of the ground.

Doug: Madison, almost every podcast, somehow a volcano mulch comes up. The evil volcano mulch. Again, for those of us that know, I always ask people that I interview, what's it like when I'm in a car with you when you drive by this big place that's been volcano mulched? What do you say? What do you do? People get sick of hearing you say, do you believe that?

Madison: My gosh, all the time. The same thing with tree identification. Once you learn tree identification, you never go back from not knowing the trees. I'll ruin movies for myself sometimes. I don't know if you've seen 65 yet with that guy from Star Wars who played, I think his name was Kylo Ren, was the name of the character. He's in this movie and they're going through, he's landed on earth from the past and all these pine trees, he's in a pine stand. I'm like, "That looks a lot like Louisiana. It's got a swamp, it's got these pine trees." I looked it up and they filmed in Louisiana. I was like, "I ruined the movie for myself."

Doug: Oh, that's awesome. Madison, I'm going to leave it right there. That's a great way to end. What a fun story. I appreciate your time. That was a lot of fun to talk to you.

Madison: Oh man, thank you so much to have me on. This has been great. I appreciate everything you do. This is great to get knowledge out to the people.

Doug: All right, well, I'm sure we'll talk again. Thanks.

Madison: Thank you.

Doug: I'm not sure if I could handle the heat like Madison does down there in Texas. How about you? Tune in every Thursday to the Talking Trees podcast from the Davey Tree Expert Company. I am your host, Doug Oster, and do me a big favor. Subscribe to the podcast so you won't ever miss a show. If you've got an idea for an episode or maybe a comment, send us an email at podcasts@davey.com. That's P-O-D-C-A-S-T-S, @, D-A-V-E-Y.com. As always, we'd like to remind you on the Talking Trees podcast, trees are the answer.

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