Arborist Wanted

The next installment of my thrift shops of Indianapolis series has dropped over on twentysomethingindy.com check it out here.

Alright guys, I have a tree problem. It isn't interior design related but I need advise so please indulge me. I can't really complain about the landscaping that I inherited when I bought this house. I have a few bushes and one tree in front. Thankfully, they are all very low maintenance, but the tree just bugs me.

Can you guess why it bugs me? You may be able to tell from the picture above that this tree looks dead. That is what it looks like for nine months of the year. Like a super dead tree. I think it looks dead because it has no twigs, it's just branches, but then few weeks later, the leaves come out proving that it's not actually dead. It is just one ugly son-of-a-gun.

Another few weeks later... It blooms more, but it still looks weird.

In the fourth grade we did a whole unit on identifying trees by their leaves. I was a goody-goody student but even I was like, "This will not be useful in my future life." So I totally phoned-in my report. Well, I guess now is the time that I could have used that information. So what do you think? Have you ever seen a tree like this? One that looks totally dead all winter and then blooms strangely in mid-May? I do realize that most trees look dead in the winter, but this tree looks extra dead because of it's lack of twigs

It still isn't fully bloomed, it looks like the pictures above. Long naked branches with a little sprout of leaves at the tips. It's so ugly!

I'll leave you with my own personal theory: It. Is. A. Giant. Weed.