Can’t keep a good tree down

[Pattree]

Scrolling through BBC news on my phone and refusing to get depressed when I came across this:

Sycamore Gap tree: Signs of life growing from stump

Sycamore Gap tree: Signs of life growing from stump

Eight new shoots have been discovered emerging from the base of the felled tree on Hadrian's Wall.

www.bbc.com

We knew it would regenerate but it’s still
a real positive in a gloomy collection of news items.

 

[Laurentius]

It is a sycamore, that is what they do. I have seen the same with trees felled by over zealous councils, they keep trying to come back.

 

[FerlasDave]

I heard this this morning also. It’s great news, like the phoenix coming from the ashes. I’m not sure what would be better, 8 new trees or one sculpted to appear similar to the old one.

 

[Lean'n'mean]

Once it does the rounds in social media, the hard of thinking will be queueing up to get 'likes' for destroying the new shoots.

 

[Pattree]

I heard this this morning also. It’s great news, like the phoenix coming from the ashes. I’m not sure what would be better, 8 new trees or one sculpted to appear similar to the old one.

Left to itself the coppice will take in the general shape of a stout sycamore. I don’t think it really matters whether it’s the shots of the trunk or one of the saplings (from its seed) being grown by the National Trust. I’d just like a sycamore to be there.

 

[Paul_B]

If it's sprouting up from the trunk is there any way to cause them to merge? I've seen double trunks of trees effectively grow into each other. I'm wondering if they could entwine the shoots as they grow so they grow into kind of one trunk.

This is possibly a daft idea but I'm tired and having some daft ideas that I think I'll share.

PS sycamore is one tree I actually don't like having had quite some difficulties keeping sycamore out of the hedge at my parents old place. There was an oldish tree rise had been laid into the blackthorn hedge. However the trunk and stump had grown too big to get out but the shoots growing out of the old horizontal sycamore trunk just grew straight up and became a straight shoot until out of the hedge. Didn't make a good hedge.

One section had to be fenced to keep it stockproof. Eventually the sycamore was effectively removed so we could double row plant fresh hawthorn and blackthorn whip plants to fill the gap.

Anyway, to this day I've disliked sycamore. I think a nice oak instead might few nicer there. Or horse chestnut perhaps.