RIP dear, dear Mr Elm

Earlier this year, it looked like this, a healthy, grand specimen:




Now? Well, I'm too ashamed to post a pic, but, imagine all that green is now a crispy brown.

Through researching the "Trees" thread I do know why: compacted (heavy clay) soil; water logging (from the early summer downpours) and then, drought (subsquent *lack* of water)

It is always saddening to be "wise" after an event; but, on a positive note, in future I can readjust my gardening habits to lessen this eventuality.

Mr Tree Spirit will be relocated, knowing he is now imbued with the essence of Mr Elm ... just need something new to replace Mr Elm with for Mr Tree Spirit to reside upon.

That is the second great tree I have "lost" in the two years I've been here (the other was a mightly willow, which a tree surgeon was called to trim, in the first couple of months, before it split; but, that was too little, too late because the poor willow developed honey fungus and this year had to be chopped down to stump level (which coincided with the ID of my elm, which I because very, very excited about!). I can still see the honey fungus within the stump, but can't burn it out because it is too close to a boundary fence

Really disappointed at these losses. Such great trees (not to mention the biodiversity they supported).

 

I'm guessing you're not old enough to remember the mature Elms before the disease took em out?

 

I do remember (somewhat vaguely, ) Dutch Elm disease, which is why I was so very thrilled that I had one in my garden!!

Alas, the "Dutch" had no part in this one's demise; my ignorance did.

 

I don't know specifically about Elm, but I'd be very surprised if one bad year could kill an established tree.

Are you sure its dead? Could it not just have decided to write off this year and is shutting down for winter already? Some of the trees round my way have been shedding their leaves for a couple of weeks now. Its a bit early really, but they've had enough for now.

 

Think i was about 8 or 9 when they started cutting them down. I had a plan to grow some in my bedroom till the disease had passed & then re populate the species.

The plan wouldn't have worked for 2 reasons,

1. The beetles that spread it are still around.

2. I'd sown Sycamore seeds by mistake

 

That may be possible, Clue, and I won't write it off just yet. I suppose I'll have to be patient and await Spring to see what happens.

Prior to our moving in, the area it is in was locally known as "The Jungle" and had been unkempt, unloved and unattended. Once we moved in, it took a 6' summat bloke, with mask and protective clothing, to enter the area with his tool just to see where the actual back fence was located!

The elm lies at the very "entrance" to that area, so has had compaction for two years. The waterlogging is hard to describe, but, suffice to say, wellies were the only way to pass by. Equally, being in the SE, once the rains stopped, it's been as dry and hot as can be.

So that begs the question: how come the weeds are still flippin thriving!!??? (Yes, even at the base of Mr Elm!)

 

The floods killed acres & acres of crops & pasture down here, its only just starting to grow back.

 

How did the trees fare????

 

Ok.

It wont have done it much good I guess, and as I said I don't know about Elms specifically, but trees in general are pretty tough. On our street we have very well established Sycamores. Probably there since the village was built in the early 1900s. Just the other day I was pondering how they still thrive, given that each is now enclosed it its own tiny patch of clay, surrounded almost entirely by tarmac.

I lost a load of established hawthorns on my land due to root rot after a field drain bunged and waterlogged the patch they were in, but as the land was more or less neglected for a few years before I bought it, it could have been happening over a long time, not a single summer.

 

They were alright because they were Willow trees and they like the water

 

They were the staple of the hedgerows around here. I went abroad for two years at the time of Dutch Elm disease and when I came back the whole landscape had changed. They had a nice, scraggy & irregular shaped, look to them. All gone now ...

Still saplings about, but the moment they get a head on them they die ... (although there are some resistant varieties I think)

 

Killed a decent sized cherry tree here too where the water flooded on the lawn ...

 

Changed the Landscape here as well, to the extent that I didn't recognise parts of it.

We've got them all around here now, but like you say, they die at about 15 feet, bark on the twigs looks like a Coots feet.

There is a resistant one planted at Escot Wildlife park, keeping my eye on that one.

 

Maybe that is the problem with my own one. It must have reached about that height now.

 

You sure its an Elm? So long since I've seen one :( I'm not sure I recognise the leaf ...