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Big dead tree
plant pauper
Posts: 6,904
As the title suggests I do indeed have a big dead tree. It was a conifery cypressy sort of thing and it was dead when I got here.
My first plan was to chop most of it down which I have done, and grow a montana up it because the birds love it. I've left three stems/trunks about 25-30 feet high.
As time has gone on I'm beginning to wonder am I doing the right thing. Is there a risk of disease? The thought of removing it gives me the horrors but I don't want a ridiculous looking dead thing with a plant up it either.
All advice and opinions welcome. What do you peeps reckon would be the pros and cons?
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I'd get rid
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
tricky one.
Montana can form a pretty massive, weighty, head of foliage which might cause problems later.
There might come a time, IMHO, that the dead conifer might not be able to cope with the weight.
No no no.... wrong answers. The proper answer is "oh yes you lazy lump that'll be lovely"!
I agree with Hostafan and Fairygirl - take it down.
Conifers don't have deep roots and a heavy head of Clematis montana, made heavier by heavy rain or snow, will catch the wind and pull the dead tree down.
I know how you're feeling - we've just made arrangements for the tree man to come and fell one of our large ash trees which is poorly - we're going to miss it so much, it's taller than the house, and we've tried to think of a way to still have some height and privacy in that corner of the garden - we thought of leaving the trunk and growing clematis or roses up it - but there isn't a safe way to do it - we have had to bite the bullet and have the tree taken down, the roots ground out and we'll start again with a 6 fot sapling ... but not an ash tree this time
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
You too huh?
Would it help if I said it's truly ugly and in a stupid place? Then would you not make me dig it up????
I knew everyone would say that. I just hoped for even a tiny glimmer of.... I don't know what.
It's a monster and I don't think I can get machinery to it. Any bright ides? Could I level it to the ground and .....then what?
I grew a wisteria up a dead pine tree once, had to use a lot of manure, a few years later the trunk rotted at the base and fell over!
Oh for goodness sake! HaHa! That's brilliant!
It's gotta go!
We don't have that here .....but I'll send you some over on the boat!
When our big tree is taken down I want to keep one of the boughs as a feature in the new bed - horizontally - gently rotting down and providing a home for bugs and beetles, nooks and crannies for plants and mosses, and something for climbers to scramble over
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I suppose if you wait for it to fall you won't have the expense and inconvenience of having it felled...