Common Ash
lydiaann
Posts: 300
To the rear of our property is a 'heritage hedge' comprising rowan, hornbeam, field maple, hawthorn, sycamore,elder and common ash. Yesterday we had extremely heavy rain and all the trees were leaning over somewhat, however, by the time evening came all was well. this morning, we have very breezy conditions and went outside to find one very heavy ash branch bent over to the ground. We tried to lift it but couldn't, so we've had to take it off. We have now chopped it up and I have 3 very good 'stems' with good new leafage and I would love to get them rooted somehow. Is it possible, how would I do it and in pots/containers or back in the ground? Bearing in mind the terrible ash die-back, and the fact that our 5 ash are in rude health, thank goodness, please tell me this is possible and we can get 3 new trees from this!
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Ash is so easy to grow from seed. In fact too easy, it seeds everywhere.
I find it a bit difficult to envisage what you mean. You say 'heavy branch' but you don't say how heavy. Everybody has different ideas about sizes.
Personally I would take a sycamore out of a hedge. It is one tree I do not like!
Are we talking about a hedge controlled and regularly trimmed, or a row of trees?
Agreed. Remove the sycamore, it has certain properties which will inhibit growth of other things around it, and the ash won't root from a branch. Seedlings, sown this autumn/winter will be away next year with a flying start. (Little note - if you sow seed of a native tree, plant a bare-root hedging whip alongside it, and a larger sized potted tree with them, after ten years, of the three, the seed will be the tallest tree there, and certainly the most healthy).
It is called a 'heritage hedge' because it is protected and I cannot remove anything from it, although I can prune overhanging branches on my side of the fence. It sits between 2 fences about 12 feet apart. The offending branch was about 12 feet long with many other branches coming from it and thus was heavy, hence my comment that we were "unable to lift it". There are no seeds on the branches I saved, so I'll just have to consign them to the recycling centre. However, I will take note about planting the seeds in the autumn/winter...with the dire consequences for our native ash (more in the Telegraph this a.m.), I will try and get some going as our trees thus far are so healthy. Thanks for the info!
Of all our native trees the ash is the one most likely to 'drop' a branch. In June the seeds would not be mature enough to sow anyway. There will be plenty from the rest of the local trees in Autumn.