Q.: My Japanese maple is about 20 years old now. The trunk is divided and I have thought of securing the two trunks together with something because of the extra weight of snow and ice in the winter.

Continued growth pushes bark outward, causing outer layers to crack. On some trees, the dead layers peel and drop off. Shedding bark is characteristic of sycamore, redbud, silver maple, shagbark ...

The maple in the above photo is suffering from what we call winter cracking or frost cracking in trees. What happens during very cold weather is that the side of the tree that faces south in the sunny ...

Once leaves drop from trees, splitting, peeling, bleached or oozing bark may become more noticeable. The cause can range from normal bark development to environmental causes or disease. If tree bark ...