Well I can’t believe it’s now December and it won’t be long now until the big C is upon us, driving back from the various jobs I have been doing this week, I have seen the Christmas lights in peoples gardens, rise from one or two houses to over 20 houses on the way back, quite often just trying to keep up with the Jones, one street had 6 front gardens in a row all lit up, only one there on Sunday! At last we have had some cold weather to make us feel it’s winter, great to wake up to the clear skies and no rain. I hope we get more days like this.
Moving onto the 6 on Saturday, this weeks 6 again comes from one of my clients garden and In homage to #nationaltreeweek I decided to do the six on trees that they have growing in their garden. I hope you enjoy them
Now this old walnut tree (Juglans regia) is sadly on its last legs, in tree years it could have another 10yrs to go, the big trunk on the left finally died this year after many years of looking weak. The rest of the tree isn’t too great either but it’s still going, the large holes it’s had in its branches and trunk have been filled in many years ago with cement, the newer ones have been used by blue tits and great tits as home, indeed it was also home to wild bees this year. It’s one of the great old characters in this garden, the safety side of me, thinks we need to fell it but the tree lover side says let’s keep it going for as long as we can and indeed that’s also what the clients want, so hopefully will be here for a few more years yet, even if it will be slightly smaller!
I had to add this sliver birch (Betula pendula) into the six, not that old maybe about 20yrs old, but Just looks stunning up in the wild corner where the sun can catch the silver bark in the morning sun.
The garden is lucky to have a lot of old fruit trees, about 20 in number I think, these trees where all planted in the 1930’s but still product good fruit most years, last year was bad, with the blossoms being caught by quite a few frosts. These pictured above are James Grieve and they will be the first ones to be pruned in January once I return from my hols, a few weeks later, they will be a picture of snowdrops and then followed by daffodils.
This cedar (Cedrus atlantica) is going to be a stunner in this landscape for many years to come, it’s about 70-80yrs old and already is making a fine tree, given time, it will power above the surrounding plants and just look majestic.
ahh a weeping willow (Salix babylonica) is one of the iconic of all trees, this beautiful weeping tree was hard pruned back a couple of years ago after dropping major branches and it’s looking back to its best now, soon there will be a pond in front of this one, making it look even more beautiful!
This huge old Horse Chestnut (Aesculus hippocastum) really does make this area and it’s a great parkland tree, the age of this tree is unknown but I think it’s the good side of 100yrs old. These trees are under threat with leaf miner moth and bleeding canker attacking them both at the same time in some cases. There’s no bleeding canker on this tree but the leaf miner moth does cause a lot of damage to the leaves. But the tree is still going strong and I hope for many more years to come
I hope you enjoyed my 6 on Saturday from my clients garden. If you did please checkout other people’s 6 on the memes founder website https://thepropagatorblog.wordpress.com/ I love seeing other people’s plants and what’s happening in their gardens. Why not give it ago yourself next week and give me a shout so I can take a look
Until next week, have fun in the garden
It’s interesting that people have been cementing the big holes on trees for years without any visible negative results but all of a sudden the advice now is that this is damaging to the tree and things should be left open. I wonder if this is the brainchild of a panel somewhere that ran out of plants to rename. I hope you’ve added a set of waders to your Christmas list.
No waders yet although I do love being in water. Nah good theories behind not filling them up tbh I did starting listing them but looked at it and thought that would make a really good blog, so sorry John, you will have to wait for my answer lol
I’m a bit giddy w/all those wonderful mature trees. My favourite is the walnut. I’ve never seen one w/2 trunks, but it’s probably a different strain that what I grew up with in Appalachia. Our family hunting camp was called Walnut Run, the trees being commoner’n common. In addition to eating the nuts, I’d dye wool w/the husks, making a gorgeous deep brown colour. But then most (all?) were killed by disease. Couldn’t believe it – no walnut trees. Hope this beauty lasts for a long time.
That’s such a sad ending to a beautiful story 🙁🙁 no sign of the disease over here thankfully but they are beautiful trees aren’t they
Nice overview of these trees…They are majestic years after years and with this National Tree Week, it was a great idea to write your Six about them. Yesterday I was in Paris and I saw an amazing cedar of Lebanon from 1734 (photo posted on Twitter)! It was my contribution for this hashtag
The horsechestnut is grand. Our native horsechestnut is an understory tree that goes bare twice a year, in winter and in summer. They are interesting, and fragrant in bloom, but otherwise, none too pretty. That walnut is also pretty grand. There were two at the home of my ancestors that were very old before the old house was built. They were leftovers from the orchard that was there earlier. I never went by the house after my Pa sold it, but was told that the trees were gone. They were too messy for a front yard.
Thank you, it’s a stunning tree, I think ours will be all wiped out in my lifetime sadly, really underthreat here with the pests,
Magnificent trees. I can just imagine the pond reflecting the weeping willow. I’ve just been reading an article about all the health benefits of walnuts.
So can I, I can’t wait to see it in there 👍 very good for you indeed
Gorgeous pictures! X
Thank you 😊
Love these trees, and will hope to see the willow with it’s pond one day, so sad about the horse chestnut trees, they do look so poorly here in the New Forest. Jackie Knight
Thank you 😀, agree it’s very sad, the moth really seems to of caught hold in this area and it does so much damage to the leaves doesn’t, hate seeing them looking like it’s autumn as early as mid August