In Your Enthusiasm for Planting, Don’t Forget About the Trees

If trees could talk, they’d probably start by saying, “Enough with the insults already.” In more than 30 years of working with trees, Christopher Roddick has made it a practice to listen to their unspoken language — and to show respect for some of the largest and oldest organisms among us. Mr. Roddick is the head arborist and foreman of grounds at Brooklyn Botanic Garden, a post he is leaving this summer, when he and his wife, Rebecca McMackin, the director of horticulture at Brooklyn Bridge Park, move north. Their first stop: a fellowship she is doing at Harvard.