Wednesday 6 November 2024

Saving the Robinia Pseudoacacia

 

There may be more posts on this blog about the Robinia Pseudoacacia (or Mock Acacia) than anything else. The photo above is from the 13th June 2023 but there are others on 7th August 2009, 16th June 2015, 10th September 2022, 26th January 2024 and the 18th May 2024. 

However, this year the ivy that has attached itself to the trunk has now reached the top of the tree. The photo below is just from the bottom.


So yesterday, drastic action was needed to prevent any lasting damage. The tree itself is situated in a piece of no-mans land that the builder of all the houses around (including ours) left as access off the road to a plot that is now the far end of our garden. This area is a now used as a dump for all sorts of branches and other garden material. The advice is to cut the ivy back six inches above ground and remove twelve inches all round. I was glad of my long handled pruning shears as some of the ivy had got into the cracks and crevices of the trunk.


I was able to pull the strands of ivy away once they had been cut and pulled away from the trunk. The bark is heavily grooved as the photo above. Typical of this tree. Below are examples of the ivy.


I will now have to watch to see if the rest of the ivy dies off. The tree itself is a fine example but I'm not sure why it was planted in the orchard that originally grew there. Or maybe it self seeded somehow. Who knows. Having lost it's leaves this autumn, I love the shape of the branches. 



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