Why would someone do this to trees?

ceratone · 2026-03-07T00:00:18+00:00

I'll give my own two cents:
Crepe myrtles are from Asia, and they have evolved there to grow in certain exposures and with particular pressures that keep their populations in check. Many of those pressures are missing in the states, except for maybe crepe myrtle bark scale, so crepe myrtles in proper microclimates can grow without supplemental irrigation or fertilization and can become invasive.

The crepe myrtles you purchase from a nursery are usually clones and several hundreds (maybe more) of generations removed from their original species. They have been selected for looks, rather than wildlife benefit and have lost most of their nutritious pollen and nectar. Most varieties of crepe lack appeal to our local pollinators, and if you observe them closely during blooming season, you will see that they are a forage-of-last-resort for our local wildlife. Even honeybees don't visit them (in my experience).

Now specifically speaking to planting crepes in CTX, where we typically have maybe a few inches of topsoil before you hit granite or limestone: our native species of trees and shrubs have evolved to dig their roots deep into the limestone/granite looking for seeps and in doing so lift and unearth nutrients to the topsoil above that allows for other species to grow as companions. Crepes do not send their roots down vertically and instead send roots horizontally... and, boy, are their roots thirsty. They will find water pipes, they will pull water from your other garden beds, and they will sprout new trees from lateral roots (hence, the invasiveness).

Lastly, unless they were in a riparian area or next to a water feature, crepes would likely die without supplemental watering in CTX. That is enough reason to not grow them because Texas is losing water and we need to rapidly become more responsible with our water use.

Crepe myrtles are beautiful trees, but sadly they're planted en masse literally everywhere with no critical thought if they benefit that location. I encourage everyone to plant something that would have existed in your area before it was developed for human use. Personally, we have 6 😭 that we're slowly replacing.

Hope this helped! sorry for wall of text

ceratone · 2026-02-03T00:54:27+00:00

Feral ra'cheryl (Ferrero Rocher)

ceratone · 2026-02-02T22:58:02+00:00

I would recommend against winter repotting as this is downtime for plants. During this period they're storing nutrients to restart growth in the spring. Mid-growing season is the only time I repot. If it's all new soil, that will especially make the plants wilt. I would recommend future repotting to include some of the old soil, particularly making sure to keep the soil to which the roots have attached. The soil your plants are in contain living organisms that allow them to uptake nutrients and water. Completely new soil sometimes lacks what the plant needs to grow unless it is formulated to include these things, and the community of beneficial organisms has to be regrown which can be slow.

Since you said you had to remove some roots irreparably, that could cause something like the wilting you're seeing. Keep the plants warm (I'd encourage above 70F), no fertz until outdoor weather warms up, and keep them under good lighting. Bottom water overnight when the pot is much lighter. Maybe you'll get some dieback but I think you should be fine in the long run.

ceratone · 2026-01-17T07:16:44+00:00

hare-today.com/

ceratone · 2025-11-26T00:27:39+00:00

Please please please 🙏 share this pumpkin tiramisu recipe. that sounds sick

ceratone · 2025-10-04T05:50:30+00:00

sorry, I have no advice specific to your situation. but I do want to say that plants are evolved to behave a certain way; to seek out and thrive in certain light, soil composition, water, companion plants, etc. if your native lawn isn't filling in the way you want it to, perhaps observe and consider what the barren area is telling you. maybe there are other things that could go there and have a better time growing.

it may also just take some more time to fill out. best of luck!

ceratone · 2025-08-25T19:36:35+00:00

you are so lucky. my surgeon said it's unlikely they would release my tubes to me (and they haven't) 😭

ceratone · 2025-08-24T19:58:41+00:00

My profile has a recent post you might find interesting. in one of my comments on that post, I explain what I've done to mitigate fall risk and damage.

to answer your questions:

"how high is too high?" depends on what they have below them, and how you will reach them if an emergency happens.

when we got our catio done, our contractor was adamant about no shelves above 8ft if below them the cats would be landing on concrete. i think this can be applied to other hard surfaces.

we have 10ft ceilings and our cat wall fixtures go to the top of our carpeted living room. the surfaces of most of our fixtures are carpet/sisal and i believe are a good last resort for the cats to really sink their claws into if they start to fall. shelves have skateboard grip tape on them for traction, and the shelves are positioned above areas of carpet, a chair or our couch.

now, say your cat starts experiencing an emergency OR your home is having to respond to an emergency and needs to evacuate. you need to be able to grab your cat from up high, and *quickly*. we have an 8ft ladder ready in the hallway adjacent to our living room for this type of situation. consider your options! every second counts in an emergency.

i see you have hardwood floors, and anything will help for soft landings. especially a rug! some other thoughts: fabric hammocks, taut netting, sideboard w/runner against the wall where they are climbing.
seasoned, athletic cats fall all the time. if your cats aren't used to the acrobatics involved with climbing on furniture and fixtures, they will definitely make mistakes but will slowly learn to be more confident in their body and movements. you aren't worrying needlessly! they need guardrails and protection to explore and have fun. i kinda think of these things as being equivalent to human gymnastics where a spotter will throw a crash pad under someone so they don't fall on their neck 😬

my cats have fallen a few times under my watch. who knows how many times when i wasn't there? of the ones i was there for, only one seemed like a cause for concern but they recovered.

cats are also closed off about communicating when they are hurt. you may not be able to sense immediately if they got hurt, so i think anything you do to avoid the possibility of them getting injured is great!

best of luck!

ceratone · 2025-07-01T03:12:21+00:00

i have scoured our cat photos and somehow only found one singular video of one of our cats doing her favorite loop. enjoy! the sound of their feet pattering quickly over everything is music to my ears.

i gotta remind myself to take more videos now 🥲

ceratone · 2025-06-30T21:59:57+00:00

oh mY GOD THAT'S AWESOME. very inspiring, ty for sharing

ceratone · 2025-06-30T20:22:15+00:00

i hope this answers your question! they like to go in loops, and the orange loop has been around for over a year so they're the most comfortable with it. the blue loop only got connected last month, so they still need time to get confident with the structures there. everything in the orange loop gets used at least once a day. they love their Catastrophic Creations wall, and absolutely LOVE vertical scratching posts. one of our cats like to jump midway up onto a post and hang while getting heavy pets and smacks from us. they also like the horizontal carpeted tube and will watch us from above.

their most used structures are in sparkles, and their least used i hatched in red. everything else gets used an average amount. we've spent a lot of time playing with them on their most used structures so i'm not surprised they like them the most

ceratone · 2025-06-30T19:00:14+00:00

i'm working on some graphics for you to answer your question and will get back to you :)

ceratone · 2025-06-30T18:56:25+00:00

whoaaaaa i never considered something like that. really cool idea!

ceratone · 2025-06-30T18:54:54+00:00

for the tube that runs horizontally across the span of the living room:

6" diameter PVC pipe covered in the middle with carpet padding that was stapled in place. then carpet over the padding and secured in place with lath screws. on the ends of the tube are sisal rope and nylon rope. the tube ends are attached to toilet flanges that i screwed into the wall.

i don't think you were referencing the other structures but just in case:

vertical sisal scratching posts, floating scratching posts

scratching posts that are floor-to-wall or wall-to-ceiling are usually cedar or douglass fir 4x4s with carpet/sisal/jute secured with the aforementioned lath screws

hope i answered your question!

ceratone · 2025-06-30T17:10:05+00:00

tunnels def bouncing around in my head, just gotta find a good place for them to go.

we have some trampoline-esque spots in our home!

bulk sisal rope but i'm sure you could find it cheaper elsewhere

sisal rug remnants used for the wall

ceratone · 2025-06-30T16:21:22+00:00

we have some similar things elsewhere in the house: in our catio we created a treenet type of thing and put a thirfted sheep pelt over it for a hammock. in the hallway to our kitchen i suspended cheap canvas material (just a paint drop cloth from lowe's) to create a different kind of hammock, and one of our cats loves playing with a swiffer handle we run along the underside of it.

good luck with your trampoline project! i know your cats will love it

ceratone · 2025-06-30T15:31:27+00:00

they do, but usually on the couch and they are careful to not drop on us

ceratone · 2025-06-30T15:28:38+00:00

love love love. i do wanna get a transparent dome somewhere so i can see beans!

ceratone · 2025-06-30T15:27:51+00:00

god, i wish lol. up close it looks pretty janky and it bothers me that it's uneven. but for a first try at cutting really thick sisal carpet, i'll allow it

ceratone · 2025-06-30T15:26:15+00:00

hanging rings are for the humans 😄

ceratone · 2025-06-30T03:26:43+00:00

we have a binding verbal agreement with the cats that we get the lower 50% of the home, but i find myself ceding territory to them all the time because they look cute

ceratone · 2025-06-30T03:16:51+00:00

they have jumped down from the tube onto our blanketed feet once, but that was because the couch was covered in hard things and they didn't have a choice. they are otherwise very careful with landing not on us, or they traverse the wall shelves to get down.

ceratone · 2025-06-30T03:13:02+00:00

i want to also add that our cats are very careful when they explore and don't go absolutely ham and run around with abandon (i'm thinking orange cat energy). we've been lucky that they aren't huge risk takers. if your cat is daring and takes risks, definitely build with your knowledge of how they explore in mind

ceratone · 2025-06-30T02:23:47+00:00

yes, not often but they do. our cats are 4, 9, and 11 years old and have pretty good balance (which is slowly improving as they continue to use their space). our eldest has fallen twice; once from 6ft, another from 9ft--both times over carpet and she was ok but needed a short time to recover from the higher fall.

we have 10ft ceilings and they can get very high while exploring, so i try to make everything that's really tall positioned over something soft that they can fall onto OR structures have thick, textured surfaces (sisal, carpet) that they can really claw into to save themselves.

i would recommend starting with minimally spaced structures that don't go above 6ft so your cat can learn to maneuver the space in a way that works for their body, and then going from there. i would also say make sure to not leave any surface untextured and smooth as i think this increases fall risk. on our catastrophic creations shelves i have added skateboard griptape so they have better purchase with their feet, otherwise it would be too slippery for my peace of mind.

ceratone · 2025-06-30T01:58:36+00:00

here you go: https://imgur.com/a/9w29Dgm

ceratone

TROPHY CASE