Common Central Kentucky Yard Trees and Their Problems

Most of what we are called about in Franklin County and the surrounding counties comes down to a fairly short list of species, each with a characteristic way of causing trouble. Knowing which tree you have tells you a great deal about what is likely to happen to it.

The fast-growing ones that fail

These were planted heavily because they grow quickly. That is also why they break.

• Silver maple — fast, brittle, prone to co-dominant stems with included bark. The classic ice-storm casualty and the most common cabling candidate.
• Bradford and callery pear — beautiful for fifteen years, then splits through the middle. Structurally predisposed to failure.
• River birch — attractive bark, weak wood, heavy limb loss in ice.
• Siberian elm and box elder — volunteer trees, weak, and frequently in the wrong place because nobody planted them.

The ones worth protecting

• White and bur oak — strong, long-lived, and genuinely valuable. Worth spending money on.
• Sugar maple — good structure, excellent colour, far better behaved than silver maple.
• Hickory — very strong wood, slow, and generally trouble-free.
• Tulip poplar — tall and fast, sheds limbs in drought, but a fine tree with room.
• Kentucky coffeetree and hackberry — tough, underused, and well suited to this region.

The ones with a specific problem

• Ash — every untreated ash is being killed by emerald ash borer. See emerald ash borer.
• Pin and red oak — bacterial leaf scorch, browning margins in late summer, progressive over years.
• Sycamore — anthracnose after cool wet springs; alarming and usually not serious.
• Arborvitae, juniper, spruce — bagworms, which can defoliate an evergreen permanently if left.
• Norway maple — dense shade, shallow aggressive roots, and a strong tendency to girdling roots.

If you are planting something new

The best time to prevent a tree problem is at planting. Choose a species suited to the site rather than to what is on sale, plant it at the correct depth with the root flare visible, keep mulch off the trunk, and prune for structure in the first ten years.

Almost every expensive mature-tree problem we deal with traces back to a decision made in the first three years of that tree’s life.

Common questions

The International Society of Arboriculture maintains a public directory of ISA-certified arborists.

What should I plant to replace a dead ash?

Oak, sugar maple, hackberry, or Kentucky coffeetree are all well suited to Central Kentucky. Avoid replacing one monoculture with another — variety across the property is genuine insurance.

Is my Bradford pear going to split?

Statistically it is likely as it matures, because the failure is built into how the tree grows rather than being a disease. Cabling can help on a younger one you value.

Why do all my oak leaves brown at the edges in August?

On pin and red oak that pattern often indicates bacterial leaf scorch, which is chronic. It should be confirmed rather than assumed.

How do I know what species I have?

Send a photo of the leaf, the bark, and the whole tree and we can usually identify it. Branching pattern — opposite or alternate — narrows it quickly.

Related: disease diagnosis · cabling and bracing · trimming and pruning. Back to Frankfort Tree Pros.

Frankfort Tree Pros · Serving Frankfort, Georgetown, Versailles, Lawrenceburg & Franklin County, KY · Call or text (859) 310-1209

Last updated August 2026