ceanothus topple

Posts

• yarrow2 Posts: 782

  August 2021

  Whiteflowers - can only relate experience with my old one.   We had gales a couple of years ago when it was about 12 foot high.  Was flabbergasted to find it had leaned really heavily over.  However, discovered it had surprisingly small roots which is why it had toppled so easily.   I was able to manhandle it upright by pushing it like mad until it stood upright and get a really solid stake in the ground to temporarily keep it upright.  I was lucky though that it was in front of a really sturdy very old iron fence and I was able to secure it at several points down the trunk with those heavy duty rubber tree tie things (sorry have had senior moment and forgotten what they are called).
  
  Finally I get to the point - it was mid-summer and it didn't suffer at all from my pruning off the heaviest branches back to a few inches from the trunk.   They all sprung into life the next Spring so I wasn't left with unsightly gaps where I had pruned them off.
  
  Sadly I did end up having to dig it out - but only because it grew much bigger than was suitable for a small garden - and it started to encroach on the next door neighbours - who loved it, but it was starting to block their sunlight.
  
  However, the pruning back of the heavy problematic branches didn't seem to do it any harm at all - but the real lesson for me was that it seemed to have very small roots which made it vulnerable to extremes of weather.  The trunk was 5" circumference if that gives you an indication of how a trunk can look really solid and sturdy - but the roots let it down once it became tall and had I known the roots weren't big in relation to that height - I would have had the sense to solidly stake it and prevented it keeling over.

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