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Help with my Holly tree.
nicholas218
Posts: 24
Hi. I have a mature Holly tree. For the last few years (may be 5? I'm not sure) it has had very few leaves but always produces some berries. It was covered in ivy and my guess was this was the problem causing the lack of leaves so in Feb 2018 I cut the Ivy off at the bottom and removed quite a bit from the trunk and the ivy all died back. I couldn't manage to remove the very top of the ivy and the top of the tree was quite close to my neighbour's phone drop-wire so I took the top 2-3 feet off too for good measure.
There was no immediate improvement in 2018 but I was hoping that last year I would see some recovery but not much has happened it is still looking terrible. The tree actually had 3 separate trunks coming from the base. The middle ( smallest ) had no live growth at all so I chopped that out too on the basis that it was probably dead.
I can see some new growth near the top but the rest of tree looks bare.
It looks like my efforts over he last 2 years have not achieved anything positive and I've probably made matters worse. So I'm now contemplating firing up the chainsaw again and removing the whole thing, which would be a terrible shame. I have a number of holly bushes around the garden self seeded from presumably this tree that are doing OK so I think my local conditions are suitable.
Any advice welcome at the moment the options I have in mind are
There was no immediate improvement in 2018 but I was hoping that last year I would see some recovery but not much has happened it is still looking terrible. The tree actually had 3 separate trunks coming from the base. The middle ( smallest ) had no live growth at all so I chopped that out too on the basis that it was probably dead.
I can see some new growth near the top but the rest of tree looks bare.
It looks like my efforts over he last 2 years have not achieved anything positive and I've probably made matters worse. So I'm now contemplating firing up the chainsaw again and removing the whole thing, which would be a terrible shame. I have a number of holly bushes around the garden self seeded from presumably this tree that are doing OK so I think my local conditions are suitable.
Any advice welcome at the moment the options I have in mind are
- Chop it all down now.
- Take it down to around 5 feet of trunk and trim off the branches in March and hope for some spring growth.
- Give it a yellow card now and hope for improvement in the spring if not give it a red card in May.
0
Posts
Remove and plant something else. See it as an opportunity.
The ivy hasn't caused the problem- the holly would already have been in decline. Possibly due to drought if you're in an area that doesn't get adequate rainfall. It's been a problem for many areas in the last few years, and even tough, reliable shrubs/trees will eventually succumb if they get dehydrated for long periods.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...