If you don't know, the quest "the blessings of nature" lets you choose between getting a sapling, (the good choice, requiring you to babysit a suicidal quest follower) or just cutting the tree, which is the bad choice. the reward is the same, some stuff, and the tree in whiterun becoming healthy again. However, if you pick the "good" choice, the tree is bugged, and the new, healthy tree sticks awkwardly out of the old one. It just seems like an easy fix for patch 1.4, and it is quite irritating to look at. Does anybody know any fixes?

It's been noted in the http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1326952-xbox-360-bug-report-topic-v2/ on the 360 board, and so far, there don't seem to be any workarounds. If Bethesda ever gets around to fixing it, you'd probably have to start a new file if you've already finished the quest with the sapling choice due to the nature of the bug.

Wow, yet another quest I won't be doing for a few months and not at all if no patch fixes the problem.

Why not? It's not gamebreaking in any way, the only negative thing here is that the tree looks a little weird. I didn't even notice until someone pointed it out to me.

Yeah, it's not game breaking, but it's a little annoying and seems easy to fix. Pc people can fix it with their console, and I am just a little concerned that it will be neglected as a result. All it is is an irritating glitch, and I'm just pointing it out so it can be easily crushed.

If you don't want the glitched tree, just take the sap from the tree. The three in whiterun would just bloom again and no glitch. Rewards are the same either way.

When I did this in my game I got stuck in a bounty cycle in whiterun area because everyone attacked me and my bounty didn't clear, and then the pay fine option didn't work? I reloaded previous save and took the other option and it was fine but is this a common problem?

I've done it both ways without bounty issues.