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Elder tree issues?

nicomorris63fT6SOPYWnicomorris63fT6SOPYW Posts: 2
in Problem solving
We have an elder tree at the front of our neighbours garden which gives us alot of privacy due to its location but although we are in August, many of the leaves have or are dropping. Is this usual or is the tree suffering or even dying?

Posts

  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    edited August 2023
    Hello @nicomorris63fT6SOPYW and welcome to the forum 😊 

    Elders are one of the earliest trees to start changing leaf colour and dropping leaves in the autumn, and we to seem to be heading for an early autumn this year.  Elders are usually pretty tenacious so I wouldn’t be overly concerned just yet. 

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • nicomorris63fT6SOPYWnicomorris63fT6SOPYW Posts: 2
    OK thanks, reassuring to here
  • philippasmith2philippasmith2 Posts: 3,742
    Can depend on your location /climate.  Our mature Elder ( over 40 foot high ) which is in coastal Somerset remains green and most of the berries are now ripe.
  • bertrand-mabelbertrand-mabel Posts: 2,697
    Whereas ours have the leaves yellowing and the berries very small and not many of them. This happened last year as well but we put it down to lack of rain.
  • B3B3 Posts: 27,505
    edited August 2023
    I wait until the wildlife, mostly pigeons, have finished with the berries. Then I get inside and underneath it ( there's rarely any bugs) and cut off any new green shoots - often 4or 5 feet tall  - at the base. It's very satisfying when they shoot vertically down to the ground. This keeps the bush a neat shape.. It flowers on old wood so nothing is lost. I rub off any buds forming in the single trunk so it looks like a small tree.
    It's the first to lose it's leaves and one of the first to get them back
    In London. Keen but lazy.
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