By Loosestrife2
United States 
I am being given a tree ornament as a gift. I don't have it yet as it is being sent to me in the mail. It requires attaching it to the trunk of a tree by using four small nails or screws. A guesstimate would be that the diameter of the trunk of this cherry tree is about fourteen to fifteen inches. I have included photos. Should I use nails or find some other means of attachment? I do not want to harm the tree in the long run but I must say that I have seen many identification signs nailed to trees in arboretums over the years with no evidence of harm though this practice has been replaced with stand alone signs. Thank You
29 Apr, 2017
Answers
The risk with nailing something to trees is of introducing infection and interrupting the flow in the vascular tissue, which is immediately beneath the bark. As your tree is so beautiful, I wouldn't want to risk it either, specially not 4 nails. I have seen things attached to trees with a band that wraps round the trunk - the trouble with that is, its important the band is checked annually and loosened as necessary as the girth of the trunk increases over time.
29 Apr, 2017
The ornament is a cow peering out from behind a tree....in this case a picture is worth a thousand words and as soon as I get it I will temporarily mount it with double stick tape to the tree and post it. Nailing is not an option from your answers. Thank you very much Moon and Bam.
29 Apr, 2017
Look forward to seeing...
29 Apr, 2017
Me too Moon grower or should I say moo!
29 Apr, 2017
I was about to echo Moon Growe. Not a good idea to drive nails into the tree. You'll never get them out. In a couple years, those nails will be inside the tree.
Perhaps you can modify the ornament somehow. A bunjee cord around the tree, then fastened to the ornament with hooks might be an option.
29 Apr, 2017
Confession time: I hammered two 6"nails into a large willow so the boys could climb into it.It did no apparent harm and the tree was too near the drains to be left there permanently anyway. (This is not to persuade you to do this...)
Could you drive in a stake immediately behind the tree and fix the cow to that?
29 Apr, 2017
Good idea - or build legs for it so it can freely stand up.
29 Apr, 2017
steel or iron nails will do little harm on a large tree. there were nest boxes nailed to the beech tree when we moved in. but don't use copper nails. copper will cause damage.
29 Apr, 2017
Bath, your mention of of the nails eventually being inside the tree has just reminded me of an occurence some time ago which happened at the site of a historic revolutionary war encampment in New Jersey. A very large old tree on this site was felled by a storm. During its sectioning to be taken away a keg was found to be inside of it. It was surmised that this keg was attached to the tree for the soldiers use and left there forgotten. During the next two hundred years the keg was " swallowed" by the tree....along with its contents which I like to think was ....HIC!...well, it was a happy tree for some time no doubt.
29 Apr, 2017
It is amazing that trees can cope with such a lot - there was one in a local park near where I live that had 'swallowed' the top of two iron railings - the trunk had simply carried on thickening up and you couldn't see the tops at all. No alcohol involved though;-)
30 Apr, 2017
Loose - I love your story about the keg - made me laugh! I faintly remember a similar story but with a bicycle. Well I googled it and found it. It really happened! Here is the story with a photo. It's amazing! Look how old that bike is!
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2013/01/bicycle-swallowed-by-tree-in-washington-state/
30 Apr, 2017
Type into your search engine: "things swallowed by trees images" and you will see things truly unbelievable!
30 Apr, 2017
Muriel? (Mooriel...)
1 May, 2017
"Tabasco" (Tabas-COW)
1 May, 2017
Stera and Bathgate - those are SO bad!
1 May, 2017
I personally would never nail or screw anything to a tree - what is this 'ornament'?
29 Apr, 2017