Is our tree OK?

Thanks Eily and Grail, it looks like the tree is on it’s way out; looks decades old. OMG. The house was built around the tree for a reason. I’m still holding on, but losing hope quite quickly. Thanks everyone.

As the Claret ash (Fraxinus augustifolia ‘Raywood’) is a grafted tree, meaning they are all clones, they should all sprout about the same time.

Claret ashes are notorious for getting dieback; that’s when the tree starts to die from the outer branches in. If it’s an old tree, then, it will be affected to some degree. Forty odd healthy years is about all you’ll get, if your lucky.

Just look around the streets and you’ll find quite a few with dead branches. And not just ashes. The drought hasn’t helped either.

Also, all the rain that we have had could of led its roots getting too wet, leading to rotting.

Your best bet is to wait until at least summer to see just how much of the tree is affected, if any.

If it is dying or dead, you will, unfortuately, have to get it removed. Just growing a climber up it is very dangerous. As the wood gets old, it gets brittle. The weight of the climber, especially wisteria, will cause the whole thing to fall. And while that might be years down the track it will come down, usually with no warning.

A neighbour’s ivy covered gum just come down in the recent winds, after standing for years. The ivy killed the gum by the way. Fortunately, only the fence and a few plants were damaged.

The conditions from one yard to the next could be vastly different, due to shade and reflections from roofs, along with one yard getting a different fertiliser regime to the other, one getting more dog poo than the other, etc.

I have a crepe myrtle and claret ash in the backyard which looked dead to the world up until about November last year, at which point they burst into green, quite literally: one day they were skeletons, the next afternoon I came home to see masses of green.

Beau Locks said :

rapunzel said :

you’re barking up the wrong tree. i’m sure it’ll turn over a new leaf in the next few days. sometimes these problems can be rooted in generic mutations, resulting in these kinds of arborations.

+1

+2
Treemendous Rapunzel.

Hi everyone, thanks for the votes of confidence. Here I am under our budless tree saying hi. I know we don’t have much, but we don’t need much with a tree like this (when it’s green). Let’s hope it lives another 80 + years.

http://tinypic.com/r/2lsjfxs/7

Lovely weekend to all.

rapunzel said :

you’re barking up the wrong tree. i’m sure it’ll turn over a new leaf in the next few days. sometimes these problems can be rooted in generic mutations, resulting in these kinds of arborations.

+1

Maate, leave it be. Your backyard appears to have not much else in it, this tree is better than nothing.

And it may surprise you yet.

Woody Mann-Caruso said :

It’s probably just pining for the fjords.

It’s not pining, it’s passed on. That tree is no more. It has ceased to be. It’s expired and gone to meet it’s maker. It’s a stiff, bereft of life, it rests in peace.

Don’t try a climbing plant in a tree that is still alive. You may kill it that way.

Only use a climber for the dead ‘uns. Particularly if they have a good structure and shape.

you’re barking up the wrong tree. i’m sure it’ll turn over a new leaf in the next few days. sometimes these problems can be rooted in generic mutations, resulting in these kinds of arborations.