Why I Oughta...

We have three Emperor 1 Japanese Maples in our backyard.  Acer palmatum Emperor 1.  The largest one is back by the firepit with a couple of smaller ones closer to the house.  They all were her during the Cicada swarm of 2024 and all suffered some damage from them.  The largest tree (by the firepit) suffered the most and has been set-back pretty sizeably.   The 3rd-to-be-planted is also the smallest one.  It is about half-way back on the north side.  It went in the ground in 2024 (Cicada year) and I protected it with some fabric .  That didn't completely protect the tree from the slits from cicadas and the top-part died-back.     But, that white tulle wasn't the only protection that I set up for this small Japanese Maple.  I also have left-up a ring of Chicken Wire around the tree, in an attempt to keep the (dang!) rabbits away from killing this tree in Winter.  That has...somewhat worked.  But, it hasn't stopped ...

Last Spring, we planted a new Emperor 1 Japanese Maple tree in the understory garden of the backyard after bringing it home from the Morton Arboretum plant sale.  Of the various Japanese Maples we've planted, we've had the most luck with Emperor 1s.   Last year was also, unfortunately, cicada season for us in Northern Illinois.  Lots of cicadas.   I attempted to protect many of our trees with tulle - including this newly planted Japanese Maple ( see here for the cicada protection ), but it seems that the top part of this new tree suffered from the little slits the cicadas carve into branches to lay their eggs.   Below is a photo of the tree - where you can see the top half of the tree is dead. When you look closely at the leader, you see the telltale signs of cicada damage:  these slits along the branch: I pruned off the top/dead branch of this tree and am hoping that we can see some recovery.   Trees typically die from the top--...