Devine Arboricultural Solutions

05/26/2026

🌸 Tree Fact Tuesday - BC's Own

If you've ever seen a burst of white blooms lighting up a forest understory in spring and stopped in your tracks, that was probably a Pacific Dogwood.

And if you're in BC, that tree is kind of a big deal. The Pacific Dogwood (Cornus nuttallii) has been BC's official floral emblem since 1956.

But here's the first twist! Those gorgeous white "flowers" aren't actually flowers. The large white petals are technically bracts (specialized leaves) and the actual flowers are the tiny cluster of 20-30 small green flowerets in the centre. BC's emblem is, botanically speaking, a leaf. 🍃

It blooms twice, once in spring and often again in late summer, which almost no other tree does. In the wild, the bracts are almost always creamy white, sometimes with a soft pink blush. The deeper pink trees you see in gardens and neighbourhoods like this beauty, are cultivated varieties, bred to show off that colour. Either way, they stop you in your tracks. 🌸

The name "dogwood" itself has a pretty grounded origin. First Nations people historically used the dense, hard wood to make handles, hooks, and skewers called "dags," and the name naturally evolved from there.

And here's a fun one, the BC floral emblem is officially depicted with five bracts, which the tree very rarely actually has. The symbol of BC is technically showing you a version of the flower that almost never exists in real life.

Keep an eye out for them right now! They're blooming across the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island. 🌿 Here’s some pictures of a pink dogwood tree we pruned at one of our clients house! Here’s what she had to say :) (posted with permission)

“I've waited since September, 2025, to see the results of your arborists work. I'm loving the space within and around my Pink Dogwood.
Thanks for allowing my beauty to stand tall, so marvellously!”

05/05/2026

Tree Fact Tuesday 🌀 The pine thats pining for the equator edition 🌲

There is a tree that always leans toward the equator. Always.

Meet the Cook Pine (Araucaria columnaris). No matter where on Earth it grows, California, Australia, Hawaii or Europe, it tilts toward the equator. North of the equator? It leans south. South of the equator? It leans north. Every single time.

Scientists measured 256 of them across five continents and the pattern held without fail. The average lean is about 8 degrees, which is double the tilt of the Leaning Tower of Pisa! One tree in southern Australia was leaning a full 40 degrees.

The wild part? Nobody knows why. 🤷

Leading theories include a genetic mutation in how the wood forms, the way it responds to gravity, or some deeply embedded biological compass pointing it home. The Cook Pine is native to a tiny island group in the South Pacific, not far from the equator. Maybe it just never wanted to leave :)

What we do know is that this behaviour has never been recorded in any other plant on Earth. Not even one! This tree is doing something completely unique and we are still figuring it out.

Next time someone tells you science has all the answers, tell them about the Cook Pine. 🌲

04/22/2026

🌳 Happy Earth Day from the Devine team.
Every day, we show up for the trees of the Lower Mainland — and it never gets old.
Whether we’re assessing a tree that’s been standing longer than the neighbourhood around it, or helping a homeowner understand what their trees actually need, this work keeps us connected to something bigger than a to-do list.
The trees across Metro Vancouver clean our air, cool our streets, and make this one of the most beautiful places in the world to call home. We think that’s worth protecting — not just today, but every day we’re out on a job.
Here’s to the trees. 🌿
📸 Photo credit: Joel

04/14/2026

🌳 TREE FACT TUESDAY 🩸
Some trees “bleed” — and the sap can be deep red.

Cut into certain trees, and instead of clear sap, you’ll see a thick, dark red liquid slowly seep out. It looks a lot like blood — but it’s actually part of the tree’s natural defense system.

When a tree is wounded, this resin flows to the surface to seal the damage, protect against insects and disease, and slow down moisture loss. It’s the tree’s way of isolating the injury and preventing further harm.

🌳🩸 In some species, like the dragon’s blood trees (Dracaena cinnabari and Dracaena draco) and certain eucalyptus varieties, this sap is naturally red due to compounds stored within the tree. These compounds have been used for centuries in dyes, traditional medicine, and even varnishes.

But what’s interesting is that not all sap looks the same — its colour, thickness, and flow can vary depending on the species, the season, and the tree’s overall health.

🌿 It might look dramatic, but it’s a controlled response.

Trees don’t panic when they’re damaged — they activate systems designed to protect, compartmentalize, and survive.

—
📸 Photo credit: Gardening Know How

04/04/2026

Can you identify this conk?

03/24/2026

Tree Fact Tuesday: The Fig Trees of Angkor Wat 🛕🌳

At Angkor Wat, some of the most iconic “ruins” aren’t just shaped by time — they’re shaped by trees. The towering strangler figs you see growing over the temples didn’t start in the ground. Birds dropped their seeds into tiny cracks in the stone, and over time, the roots worked their way down, slowly wrapping, thickening, and anchoring themselves into the structure.

What’s fascinating is that these trees are doing two things at once — they can cause damage, but they can also hold everything together. In many cases, the roots have become so integrated with the stone that removing the tree could actually lead to more collapse than leaving it in place.

It’s a good reminder that when we see a tree growing into a structure, it’s not always as simple as “remove it.” Sometimes, the tree has become part of the system — stabilizing, redistributing weight, and adapting in ways we can’t immediately see.

Before jumping to removal, it’s always worth having an arborist assess the situation. What might look like a problem could actually be working in your favour.

Nature doesn’t just take over — it adapts, anchors, and sometimes even supports what we thought was falling apart 🌿 swipe to see all images, each cooler than the previous!

03/20/2026

03/10/2026

🌳 Tree Fact Tuesday ~ self care edition

In forests, trees are constantly competing for sunlight.

As the canopy grows taller and denser, the lower branches fall deeper into shade. Without enough light to photosynthesize, the tree slowly stops investing energy into those branches.

Over several growing seasons, those shaded limbs die and eventually fall away — a natural process called self-pruning.

If you look closely at the trunk of a Quaking Aspen, you’ll often see dark oval marks sometimes called “eyes.” Many of these are scars left behind where branches once grew before the tree shed them as it reached upward toward the light.

It’s a quiet reminder written in the bark itself — trees are always growing, always adjusting, always reaching higher.

Even trees practice a little self-care — sometimes the healthiest thing to do is let a branch go.
Growth can often look like shedding what no longer serves the whole to grow taller 🌿

02/24/2026

🌿 Tree Fact Tuesday 🌿

There’s a tree in Brazil that looks like a forest — but it’s only one tree.

The Cashew of Pirangi spreads across more than 8,000 square meters (over two acres), making it the largest cashew tree in the world. From above, it resembles a dense woodland canopy. On the ground, it feels like walking through a grove.

But every trunk, every branch, every leaf belongs to a single organism.

Unlike most trees that prioritize vertical growth, this one grows outward. Due to a rare genetic mutation, its branches extend horizontally. When they become heavy enough to touch the soil, they root and thicken, forming what appear to be new trunks. This natural process — known as layering — allows the tree to continuously expand its footprint, redistributing weight and creating an interconnected network of living wood.

It’s not a cluster. It’s not a forest.
It’s one tree, repeating itself.

Local folklore adds another layer to its story. According to legend, a fisherman planted the original seed in the late 1800s. As the tree began to spread along the coastline, villagers started to see it as something protective — a quiet guardian stretching toward the Atlantic, sheltering the land beneath its wide canopy.

Over time, it became a symbol of abundance and endurance. The tree still produces tens of thousands of cashew fruits each year, its branches continuing to root and extend, as if refusing to stop growing.

What began as a single seed became an entire landscape.

One organism.
One continuous system.
A living reminder that growth doesn’t always rise upward — sometimes it expands outward, reshaping the ground around it. 🌿✨

02/11/2026

🌳 TREE FACT TUESDAY 🌊
Can you imagine a forest spending months underwater — every single year?

In the Amazon rainforest, seasonal rains cause rivers to rise and flood vast areas of forest annually, creating what’s known as a flooded forest ecosystem.

Floodwaters can rise up to 15 metres (about 4 storeys high) and extend up to 20 km into the forest, temporarily turning dry land into aquatic habitat — an area over 2,000 times the size of Vancouver.

🌊🌳 Instead of collapsing, these forests have learnt to adapt.

Trees tolerate prolonged submersion, while their submerged roots and trunks provide food, shelter, and migration pathways for fish and wildlife. Nutrients, seeds, and organic matter are redistributed by floodwaters, supporting one of the most biodiverse and beautiful ecosystems on Earth.

🌍 Forests aren’t static.
🌳 Trees aren’t passive.
🌊 Nature works in systems.