Buds swelling and leaf burst is triggered by increasing day length and warmth. It is a chemically induced event. It is not a good indicator of tree health. A better indicator is if the tree can support these new leaves.
This assessment can be complicated by these new young leaves being impacted by frost that can damage the leaves.
If you can recall the scene in Gold Finger where the girl is painted in gold and dies, the cause of her death is the same as what compacted soils do to trees. Let me explain:
She died because her skin could not breathe.
Roots need to undertake gaseous exchange. When the soil is compacted this is reduced or stopped. The result, a decline/death of a tree is a result.
Compaction can be caused just by foot traffic, but more commonly it is the storage of materials or the traversing of vehicles /plant. When the ground is damp it's effect is worse.
Air spades can relieve decompaction, but prevention is better than cure. Unfortunately compaction is usually caused when there is a lack of understanding/care about trees, soil and roots.
We can:
Supply and Plant
Supply only
Plant trees you have sourced
There are however options for the trees at various times of the year.
Container Grown trees are available all year round and are available in a variety of types of containers. Air Pot trees are undoubtedly the highest quality, but they are available in black pots, white bags and other containers. There are a limited number of species of trees that are only recommended as container grown trees i.e. Monkey Puzzles.
Rootballed and Bareroot trees are available only during autumn and winter. They stop being sold as spring starts and start when autumn takes full effect. Neither are dates in the diary, it is when nature tells us.
Bareroot trees are offered only for very small trees and some varieties are not suited to being offered bareroot at all but the very smallest trees. Bareroot trees need careful handling in accordance with simple guidelines designed to stop the roots becoming dried out.
Rootballed trees offer the widest possible range of trees as there are many more growers of this form of trees.
Pleached trees are specimens whose canopies have been trained laterally. When fruit trees are trained like this it is called espalier. Usually these are standard trees (with a single trunk around 1.8-2.1 metres in height) They can also be trees with branches from the base (feathered trees) that have been trained laterally.
Historically pleached trees we planted in avenues to form pleached walks, with a clear stem of around 2.2 metres to allow them to be walked under. Pleached trees used to be Lime and Hornbeam species only. These were selected because they naturally produce branches in pairs, making them a neater pleach. The pleached walks were /are as stunning in winter as the bare branches eventually join and five or so continual lines of branches run down the walk.
Pleached trees are now predominantly used as screening, as their narrow form consumes a tiny proportion of the garden. Hornbeam and Lime trees are deciduous and the bare branches provide little in the way of screening.
We therefore offer trees that either hold their leaves longer than other deciduous trees or are evergreen / holdtheir leaves all year when clipped.
These are offered with trunk heights to suit your requirements, i.e. to commence the pleach at the height of your wall or fence.
We also offer taller than normal pleached trees.
The answer is invariably yes.
Here are some of the reasons why it does not take place:
1) Whilst mechanical Tree Moving (with Tree Spades) can be very cost effective with suitably sized trees. When we have to rootball the tree/shrub, when there is no access for a Tree Spade or the specimen is oversized for a Tree Spade (we have the largest in the UK) and a much bigger rootball is required, the budget required can be very large Any size of tree can be transplanted, the budget needed can be large and the timescale needed to root prepare cannot be suitable.
2) Species of tree, there are few that we do not move, Eucalypts and Monkey Puzzles.
3) Lack of time, with some specimens especially large ones, we recommend root pruning prior to transplanting. Sometimes this timescale is not available. Please contact us early in any prospective project!
4) Wrong time of year. We prefer not to transplant during Spring and Summer, when trees are transpiring at their most. We can translocate move during these times but a much higher level of care has to be taken.
5) Local Authority does not permit. On occasion if the tree is subject to TPO /Conservation Area status, the application/notification is refused. This is usually because the Local Authority does not believe our methodology will be successful. Thankfully this is very rare, especially when meaningful root pruning and aftercare are specified.
6) Unhelpful soil, when the topsoil is very thin the roots will have travelled significantly further to gain nutrients and moisture. In these situations, we need to take a larger rootball or root prune prior to moving.
1) As native trees have been present from just after the last ice age, they are a essential part of our ecological make up. They will support many more fauna (and fungi) than non native. This is then magnified by the fauna that live off the directly related fauna, the fauna that live off of the indirectly related fauna etc etc
2) Native trees are optimised to our climate/conditions. This is also a weakness, if climate changes i.e. it gets hotter/drier potentially our native trees cannot cope. In this case non-native trees suited to the new climate will cope better.
3) This may just be an Arborist's point of view. Native trees sit better in our landscape. They do not disrupt the landscape. Think of a normally magnificent mature Purple Beech central to your favourite bit of woodland. OK the contrast will be stunning, but doesn't it look out of place?
4) There are varieties of native trees that have different canopy shapes (usually more upright), more flowers, less fruit etc. These will have the same benefits as native trees but may suit the planting location better.
This is not an exhaustive list!
Once the right variety of tree has been selected for the planting location:
The size/age of tree will influence the cost, there is always a size of tree to suit all but the smallest (<£1) budget. The price increases exponentially with size. At the larger sizes it is very close to the vertical part of the curve, upto the largest trees commercially grown.
Then you have the delivery/planting cost which again is a function of the size of tree, your location and planting location.
Once planted, please sit back and admire your investment.
Then the cost of aftercare, primarily watering, whilst the tree establishes (gets to the point where the root system has extended to that of a 'normal' tree and can look after itself). This period of time can last upto 5 years after planting.
It is a very false economy to invest all your funds in just the tree and planting. It will need assistance after planting.
The cost of aftercare can be reduced by (cool/damp springs and summers) automated watering systems or drip irrigation that you can plug your hose into. Mulching will assist
Please allow time (and therefore money) to care for the tree you plant.
I am a small leafed Lime (Tilia cordata) on Twitter @yourtalkingtree
I (as this tree) could live for 700 years, that is 28 human generations or until 2695.
This puts a new angle on long term. If humans lived this long, maybe better long term decisions will be made, those in power would not just be making decisions that affect their children but there children's, children's,children's, children's, children's, children's,children's, children's,children's, children's,children's, children's,children's, children's,children's, children's,children's, children's,children's, children's,children's, children's,children's, children's,children's, whilst they are still alive.
In the most of the UK winter has been notable only by it's absence.
Yes, days are shorter, the sun is weaker and lower in the sky but the average temperatures have been much much higher. In December the South East averaged 8 degrees and London 10 degrees. The change from the average (so Radio 4 told me) is like Usain Bolt knocking a second off his 100m world record+. Apparently the North Pole is 30 degrees above average!
Trees need the regular rhythm of the seasons. If not the raised the temperatures (of air and soil) can trigger early spring responses (swelling of buds etc). If we then get frosts and colder weather these new growths can get hit very hard. The trees have to then spend energy repairing and rebudding/leafing. Losing precious energy. There are many other impacts of seasons not being seasonal.
In addition bugs that do not usually overwinter will not be killed off or decimated by the cold weather. They will be available in multiples of their former numbers to attack trees.
We need days of below freezing weather. To kill bugs and remind trees it is not spring. Please
Firstly deciduous trees are the ones that lose their leaves in winter, apart from the conifers that are deciduous, the one that doesn't when clipped, those that hold their leaves into winter and any that are marcescent (hold onto their withered leaves through winter, such as the odd Oak tree).
I will only deal with deciduous trees, that are deciduous in the normal way.
These trees can be surprisingly attractive when naked, without leaves.
My personal favourite is Beech, Fagus sylvatica or the purple version purpurea, when as an individual specimen, viewed against a sky. The way the branches continue to divide until at the edges of the canopy; they almost disappear into the sky, I find bewitching and beguiling.
I appreciate if you are looking for specimen to plant in a garden, a mature Beech tree will be too large (for most gardens) and you will have to plant it for your grand children to fully enjoy.
Trees which are more accessible are:
Winter flowering Cherries (pink and white flowers), on a winters day, this tree will be the only one in flower, it flowers intermittently (half heartedly) from November. Although it's flowers are nothing compared to other cherries in spring, their scarcity in winter is welcome.
There is a group of trees with interesting barks:
Persian Ironwood (Parrotia persica) - this has mottled bark (like a London Plane, but smaller platelets) with tan, cream and grey bark. Also has great autumn colours and interesting flowers.
Tibetan Cherry (Prunus serrula) - a mahogany shiny brown bark, but underwhelming flowers, it seems to have placed all its energy in it's stunning bark.
Prunus maackii Amber Beauty - with amber coloured glossy bark, better white flowers than the Tibetan Cherry and better leaves on a conical canopy.
Birches - There are many that have white bark( Silver Birch / Betula pendula, Himalayan Birch / Betula utilis var Jacquemontii (very white bark, for the sake of brevity this ignores the varieties bred for an even whiter bark), Chinese Birch/Betula albonsensis ' Fascination' ( white with a hint of salmon pink bark), Paper Birch ( Betula papyrifera, peeling white bark). Erman's Birch (Betula Ermanii - yellowish white, turning brownish yellow after peeling)
Snakebark Maples (Acer capillipes, Acer davidii, Acer pensylvanicum, Acer refinerve, a group of trees with vertical stripes in their trunks.
I will ignore Eucalypts, as mature specimens their stability in the UK is not good, they grow too fast in the UK, often needing regular management to control size. They can however make excellent small coppiced / trimmed specimens.
One tree often overlooked is the Cork Oak, Quercus suber.
Beech & Hornbeam (Fagus & Carpinus) have smooth grey bark.
Apologies to any trees I have omitted (the above are trees suited to the UK only), if you are offended / want to correct me please send a direct message to @yourtalkingtree and your message will be responded to with arboreal love.
When choosing trees for their bark, see if you can get them as multistemmed specimens (more trunks), if you can plant them in odd numbered groups to accentuate their trunk colour. With lighter coloured trunks, plant them to draw the eye to accentuate distance.
In addition to bark, there are fruits (catkins, seed pods...) that can also provide interest.
Tis the season (in temperate climates in the Northern Hemisphere) for slippery paths and roads.
In our risk adverse world, ice or even the threat of ice triggers an over reaction. Instead of clearing snow and ice or walking more carefully; rock salt and salt are spread to reduce the risk of slips/falls/claims (real or imaginary) for slips and falls.
This is multiplied by people not understanding the difference between an air frost and a ground frost. An air frost (the type that places ice on your windscreen), will not cause ice on the ground. Yet when a zero or sub zero temperature is reported, it can be a the start of an application of rock salt/ ice, when it is not needed.
Why am I an Arborist writing about this? It is because salt kills trees. Please be aware of this and try not to place salt around trees.
To understand this, we think it is best to go for a walk in the woods. What is underfoot? A covering of composting vegetation, scrape this and the most wonderful organic compost/soil exists. Even the least green fingered person appreciates the majesty of this soil.
Now walk down a street, what is around the trees in the pavement, tarmac, slabs, resin bonded gravel, bonded gravel, in grass verges, perhaps a tiny bit of soil, rarely a very small area of mulch?
Mulch, preferable with leaves, but woodchips are usually more appropriate, this increases Mycorrhizal activity ( http://www.rootgrow.co.uk/mycorrhizal-fungi.html ). Mulch increases Mycorrhizal activity by upto 15 times over grass. Mulch as it composts adds organic matter to the soil, improving it's health.
If you are wymiscally minded, when you go on holiday or if you move abroad, you bring items home, from images to trinklets, to remind you of home. That is what trees feel with mulch, it reminds them of home! The woodland floor or the time before humans started removing leaves.
Mulch is incredibly beneficial to the roots and quality of the soil around trees. It should be installed 3" deep and it is vital to keep the immediate area around the trunk clear (it is meant to be above ground and raising mulch up the trunk is as bad as heaping soil up the trunk). How far should it be spread? As far as the roots spread!
It is not a one off application, to maintain benefits it should be regularly topped up. In addition to deterring weeds and grass maintenance machinery (strimmers damaging bark kills many trees), it adds organic material to the soil (soil is a living organism and needs to be fed, the soil feeds the roots (it's not quite as simple as that, but it essentially this) and it retains moisture in the soil. Most importantly it helps Mycorrhizal fungi.
In the northern hemisphere in it is Autumn/Fall.
Just think of woodlands and before humans had lawns, pavements etc that needed to be kept clear of leaves.
Perhaps the original closed loop recycling, is the recycling of the valuable nutrients in leaves, by the tree that shed them.
It is now becoming recognised that the removal of these nutrients (and the grass cuttings from lawns) removes this link and removes nutrients from the tree (lawn).
Also think about when wild flower meadows are created, advice is to remove the nutrients to make the soil poor which encourages (what are viewed as) wild flowers, you are advised to remove the cut grass.
In Hyde Park they recognise that the removal of leaves are inducing a deficiency in nutrients for mature trees and are now feeding trees to replace these lost nutrients (hopefully they will have found a way to use the leaves every year.
At Kew they used to have hundreds of volunteers to clear up leaves. Now they are mulched with mulching mowers where they fall and Tony Kirkham, swears the resulting small sections of leaves are consumed by worms overnight.
The leaves shed by your trees, should be given back to the trees. If you can leave the in situ to compost down, fabulous. If on lawns a mulching mower (one that cuts up grass cuttings so that they are returned to the lawn) will cut the leaves up so small, that the worms will make short work of them and start the recycling.
If these two options are not available, you could compost the leaves down, then in spring gift them back to the tree as a mulch.
Close that loop please!
Even if you get the rest right, unless the tree receives assistance whilst establishing.
Establishment is the period during which the tree expands it's root system, it is established when it has a "natural" root system (trees are planted with a small diameter nursery root system) and can look after itself without the need for assistance.
During this period of deficit (when the root system is still expanding to a natural tree) the tree will need help. This assistance is primarily watering (mulching; potential pruning, adjusting / removal of guying/staking also are needed). Feeding is usually unwarranted as the soil if healthy should provide all that is required.
This period of deficit / establishment can last upto 5 years. The idea of 12 months aftercare to ensure establishment is utter nonsense.
The people that specify planting projects and those such as planners who pass them have to ensure that the resources are in place for competent aftercare for 5 years. To provide 5 years aftercare will guarantee the proposed landscape after 5 years. How many new landscape schemes do you see with dead trees, leaning trees, trees with epicormic/basal growth, stressed trees (read trees as trees and shrubs)?
There is a British Standard that specifies 5 years aftercare (along with right tree/right place/planting correctly) BS8545:2014. If only Local Authority planners specified this as a condition.
For all planting the budget cannot just be spent on the trees and planting, it is better to plant less and provide a budget for sensible aftercare program.
After identifying the right tree to plant in the right place, it is the actual planting process that is important.
The most common mistake is planting at the wrong level.
Essentially the trunk of the tree is designed by nature to be above ground and the roots (just) below the ground. It sounds simple, but planting too deep is a very common (often fatal) error.
There is a line on the rootballed/container grown tree where the soil level was in the nursery. This is correct 99.9% of the time.
This line cannot be planted below ground level. It can be planted very slightly above. Firstly the trunk is not designed to be below the ground level, it will rot and can be a place for disease to enter. Secondly roots need to breathe (undertake a gaseous exchange), plant too deep, they have increased problems breathing.
If the soil can become waterlogged, it could be appropriate (after choosing the right species for these conditions) to plant slightly above the ground level, to allow some of the roots to breathe when waterlogging occurs. Dress the exposed sides of the rootball with topsoil to allow the roots to encompass these areas.
Before I comment on the planting and aftercare, the mantra "right tree, right place" has to be underlined.
The tree has to be planted in the right environment; damp/dry ground; thin topsoil; exposed location; coastal location, acidic / alkaline soils, hard surfaces,,,,,,
The tree has to thrive in it's location, to do this the location has to suit the tree. How do you ascertain this? Even the most experienced Arborist will note what is thriving locally, they have the added advantage of also identifying which are struggling and identifying their names. There are also many guides one the web to assist you.
When assessing the tree, you have to think 50-100 yrs ahead, is there space for it to mature? You should not burden future owners with the cost of managing to control size.
Some species have known risks i.e. disease, pests, large branch detachment when mature, suckering through their root systems, high moisture demand (subsidence risk)....
Ideally the tree should fulfill it's function (screening/wildlife/ornamental) and compliment the locality.
Ask an Arborist if you are unsure!
There are two aspects to the form of a tree, when considering which tree to plant (or where to transplant a tree to).
The first is the ultimate size of the tree, an arborist will automatically visualise the mature tree in the proposed location. There are trees that even at maturity are small, others massive and all sizes in between.
The second is the shape of the tree, it has to fit the space, there are wide spreading, columnar conical, weeping, rounded canopies ... trees.
We do not want to plant trees that will require future management to control their ultimate size or shape. This is an unfair burden to place on future generations and if often detrimental to the tree.
When selecting trees, it is prudent to understand the future size of the tree.
Notwithstanding this you could take the approach of many Local Authorities and plant trees which if left to mature would be the wrong tree, but they are planted with a set time span, so they are replaced after 20-30 years. This is a pragmatic approach, especially in a risk adverse climate, not allowing them to get too large/having too much influence. Please note, this Local Authority approach is an informed expert assessment of each tree and each location.
We are about to enter autumn and apparently the weather we have had this summer in the UK will result in better than usual tints.
Whilst all deciduous trees have leaves that change colour, some retain these autumn tinted leaves for longer and others have better autumn colours. A few have booth better colours and for longer.
One tree drops all it's yellow autumn tinted leaves at once, creating a yellow carpet of leaves.
There are also many trees that have the highly desired autumn colours, but also have area(s) of interest (flowers, fruit, leaves, form, bark, beneficial to wildlife).
When prospective clients ask us for advice on which tree to plant, after consideration over ultimate tree size (right tree for right place) and listening to the preferences of the client, after ensuring their planting location is suitable for the tree. We try to recommend one of these multi-faceted trees to provide many areas of interest through the seasons, to provide delight throughout the year.
We are often asked to plant semi-mature orchards for clients. More often than not, it is a surprise when we ask them, which varieties of Apple / Plum / Pear / Cherry etc do they enjoy eating.
It is delightful to know that the clients senses, taste buds and stomach are going to benefit from our works,
We offer a comprehensive tree, hedge, shrub and habitat transplanting. Our Tree Spades include the largest in the UK, the Stocker 8 2.16 metre Tree Spade as well as a fleet of smaller Tree Spades.
When our Tree Spades cannot gain access or the specimens are either too large or too small we transplant using rootball techniques. With this method we can move even the largest trees and hedges without reducing their canopy.
The optimum time to transplant trees is September-December so if you have any potential projects give us a call 01277 849990 . If you can provide us with the rough diameter (across the trunk) at around 20cm we can usually provide a guideline quote over the phone.
Our popular services:
Air spade
Decompaction & helping trees
Golf greens & turf
Tree moving
Tree supply & planting
Screening trees
