It's the Cambium, Baby...What in the World is the Cambium and What Does it Have to Do with Real Estate?

Think back to that first academic experience with plant life!  The cambium is the vitality of a plant's tissues. It is a multi-cell layer of actively dividing cells beneath the bark. Cambium cells that divide toward the trunk or center of the plant form xylem tissues. Those that divide toward the outside produce phloem cells.  Phloem cells transport nutrients made in the leaves, such as sugar, to the roots for storage while xylem cells carry water from the soil to the above ground parts of the plant.  The cambium layer is seldom more than 10 cells thick, usually averaging 5 cells.  

OK, Professor, I am still at a loss to figure why I need to know that stuff.  I am not planning to be on Jeopardy any time soon!  Well, here is the punch-line...Most of the Country has had a freeze and the plants in our yards are looking pretty bad, with their leaves on top and around the surface all dead.  In my earlier Blog Post on Trimming After a Freeze, I recommended leaving your shrubs and other out-of-doors plant life alone until Spring because plants have a way of sealing off the damaged areas and trimming cuts only open up those "wounds" again.  

But what about cutting the dead stuff off without cutting into living tissue?  Guess what?  It would probably be best for the plant to leave everything as is, but if you are facing a CURB APPEAL issue, then you can proceed as long as you don't cut into living tissue.  You wouldn't open a scab on your finger, would you?  Similar scenario here.  

Now here comes the neat part...what is living and what is dead, you wonder.  Take your fingernail or a small knife and scrape below the dead stuff and see if the layer beneath the bark is GREEN or BROWN-BLACK.  You know by now that you have exposed the CAMBIUM and that the GREEN areas are....drum-roll please... ALIVE!  So, be kind to your plants and cut the dead foliage off where the cambium is DARK.  No, you don't have to do a scrape on every branch/twig.. Check in 3 or 4 stems and you will fairly well know how to trim the unsightliest parts without creating too many "wounds".

I have enjoyed helping you safely trim in the interest of CURB APPEAL for your favorite Listing!  Now, if you have never checked the CAMBIUM before, get out your Book of Life's Experiences and record the "Baring of the Cambium"!