Is it really necessary to paint young trees? A. The short answer is yes, it’s important to paint or wrap your tree to prevent sunburn and sunscald on the trunk and scaffold branches.

Landscape designer Ted Weiant in his backyard where he has tinted the trunks and branches of trees with latex paint, like this camelia that is painted blue.

"In fact, painting tree trunks white to repel pests was first introduced in Europe," Cai said. "Previously, European countries applied this technique to fruit trees.