Home grown Oak trees
- Thread starter Emjay
- Start date
As I kid I read about bonsai trees. So I collected an acorn and planted it in half an eaten grapefruit skin. I read somewhere that you needed to restrict root growth for bonsai and grapefruit skins are a good way to start it off. Got an oak sapling but no bonsai. Eventually we planted them in the garden, or parents didn't know, but they died. Don't know what we did wrong but we were very young and it was only a bit of fun.
Things like that are great to do with kids. Plant a tree when they're young and watch it grow.
Things like that are great to do with kids. Plant a tree when they're young and watch it grow.
Age 15, 16, I used to go planting acorns on the mountainside facing ours. There were lots of oaks on our side, but none over there, just bracken and a slag heap top. No joy though. Not a one out of a couple of hundred, I guess, that I gathered and poked into the ground.
Now is tree planting season.
I've ordered beech and yew saplings from the Woodland Trust.
I know I'll never benefit from seeing them grow to maturity. One of the beech trees is going to be planted in my favourite sit spot. Beech is my favourite tree (we all have a favourite tree, right?) and I will leave instructions in my will that my ashes are to be sown beneath this tree so I can enjoy my favourite spot beneath my favourite tree for eternity.
Go and plant a tree now!
I've ordered beech and yew saplings from the Woodland Trust.
I know I'll never benefit from seeing them grow to maturity. One of the beech trees is going to be planted in my favourite sit spot. Beech is my favourite tree (we all have a favourite tree, right?) and I will leave instructions in my will that my ashes are to be sown beneath this tree so I can enjoy my favourite spot beneath my favourite tree for eternity.
Go and plant a tree now!
Beech? How can you like the widow maker like Beech? Almost my least favourite tree. Don't know why but perhaps it's the wide, spreading branches I don't like.
Yew trees are great though. Just love them. Fortunate to live where there's loads growing wild. I'll be moving soon to a garden that has a yew tree in so I'll be happy. Might plant another, possibly to replace a leylandii or two that shouldn't be there. Btw anyone got a clue how much tree surgeons might charge to remove two probably quite old leylandii specimens? They've been topped off but they're a decent sized trunk so must be old.
Yew trees are great though. Just love them. Fortunate to live where there's loads growing wild. I'll be moving soon to a garden that has a yew tree in so I'll be happy. Might plant another, possibly to replace a leylandii or two that shouldn't be there. Btw anyone got a clue how much tree surgeons might charge to remove two probably quite old leylandii specimens? They've been topped off but they're a decent sized trunk so must be old.
Beech is to oak like the Hurricane is to the Spitfire.
The Spitfire gets all the glory but the Hurrican did all the work.
So it is with oak and beech. We think of hardy English oak and how the country was built of it, but truth is that beech was the most used hard wood (and poor old, forsaken, hornbeam). Britain was built with beech. It was beech that did all the work.
But it's not just that, it's also the appearance of the tree. I love the look of a beech tree and I love the look of beech woods. They always look like an adventure is about the start. That, armed with your longbow and guile, you can resist that wicked sheriff.
The Spitfire gets all the glory but the Hurrican did all the work.
So it is with oak and beech. We think of hardy English oak and how the country was built of it, but truth is that beech was the most used hard wood (and poor old, forsaken, hornbeam). Britain was built with beech. It was beech that did all the work.
But it's not just that, it's also the appearance of the tree. I love the look of a beech tree and I love the look of beech woods. They always look like an adventure is about the start. That, armed with your longbow and guile, you can resist that wicked sheriff.
I thought hazel and possibly elm were also very important. Indeed one of the books I'm reading says hazel was more important. In some places sweet chestnut is widely coppice and used too.
Then iirc ash too is very important.
No, I do not agree with you on beech.
Currently reading a book by Ben Laws and last lockdown a book by this guy who wrote about making the most out of a majestic ash tree on his land. His book was about getting the most bang out of the single tree. He argued that while elm and oak got used widely it was ash trees that were considered most important in England. The most valuable tree. Oak I think became more important with the rise of the the importance of the royal navy to Britain. English oak defended the nation and its interests around the known world, once. Ash had a longer life. It's been used in carriage wheels and frame from early middle eastern times and the earliest known civilisations in middle east.
Sorry but to me beech trees are an ugly tree. I have always felt uneasy around them. No idea why just always did. It's like I feel they have an evil spirit, if that makes sense. It doesn't to me!
Then iirc ash too is very important.
No, I do not agree with you on beech.
Currently reading a book by Ben Laws and last lockdown a book by this guy who wrote about making the most out of a majestic ash tree on his land. His book was about getting the most bang out of the single tree. He argued that while elm and oak got used widely it was ash trees that were considered most important in England. The most valuable tree. Oak I think became more important with the rise of the the importance of the royal navy to Britain. English oak defended the nation and its interests around the known world, once. Ash had a longer life. It's been used in carriage wheels and frame from early middle eastern times and the earliest known civilisations in middle east.
Sorry but to me beech trees are an ugly tree. I have always felt uneasy around them. No idea why just always did. It's like I feel they have an evil spirit, if that makes sense. It doesn't to me!
I think in might have seen a horror movie once where the camera moved rapidly back and forwards at a beech tree during a particularly scary bit.You apparently feel a wrong set of Dryads.
Either that or I think there was a sleepy hollows movie where the headless horseman took it's victim into a beech tree leaving a bloody mess on the trunk. You see even movies see beech trees as menacing in form or they'd not use them!!!
I've had great results with just planting acorns in pots.
Basically most of them sprout.
I culled the Turkey Oak as I didn't want Knopper Gall Wasps to cause galls on the rest.
I never got to properly plant them as I gave them to someone else to plant on their land.
Cherry trees grow nicely from a cherry pip.
Basically most of them sprout.
I culled the Turkey Oak as I didn't want Knopper Gall Wasps to cause galls on the rest.
I never got to properly plant them as I gave them to someone else to plant on their land.
Cherry trees grow nicely from a cherry pip.
I have to agree with Wander; mature Beech trees are magnificent!
I was lucky enough to have a mature Beech wood border my garden when I lived 'Down South' - I could step into it and be transported to a much older time. They are mainly a southern British species though and there are not many around where we are now - one notable one a couple of fields away that is around 250 years old
I don't have a favourite tree though. There are around 21 species of tree in our Ancient Semi Natural wood and they all exhibit different values and benefits to me, the wildlife or both. For some it's the quality of the wood for various uses, others it's the blossom or fruit, or the ability to regrow from a stool, or just the sheer majesty of an old mature specimen.
I just love trees
I was lucky enough to have a mature Beech wood border my garden when I lived 'Down South' - I could step into it and be transported to a much older time. They are mainly a southern British species though and there are not many around where we are now - one notable one a couple of fields away that is around 250 years old
I don't have a favourite tree though. There are around 21 species of tree in our Ancient Semi Natural wood and they all exhibit different values and benefits to me, the wildlife or both. For some it's the quality of the wood for various uses, others it's the blossom or fruit, or the ability to regrow from a stool, or just the sheer majesty of an old mature specimen.
I just love trees
I've just planted up a few acorns, chestnuts, hazel and conkers in pots. It's an experiment to see what happens and hopefully plant a few trees of a different kind around here.
Around here the woods are mostly beech. I love beech, particularly in their autumn splendour.
I'd like to see a bit more variety here and there so will be gorilla planting them with some tree guards once big enough. If they don't look official they will get rubbed out.
Around here the woods are mostly beech. I love beech, particularly in their autumn splendour.
I'd like to see a bit more variety here and there so will be gorilla planting them with some tree guards once big enough. If they don't look official they will get rubbed out.
Back at my last house a jay planted an acorn in the middle of our tiny front lawn. It sprouted and I thought it would be amusing to leave it for a while. It got lawn mown at least once, but today it is over 5feet tall, maybe 6feet and 2-2.5 inch trunk. Its possibly the most inappropriate location for a tree that would grow as big as oaks do! Maybe just 10 feet from the house.
So, be warned, be careful where you plant your trees, they might surprise you and do well there!
So, be warned, be careful where you plant your trees, they might surprise you and do well there!
I hope they do, do well. I need to plant some more damson and other fruiting trees up in the woods. Everything keeps getting cut down here in the valley to "keep things tidy"
Hence my loss this year of damson and hazel and elderberry, because they"make such a mess on the pavement," and the hazel nuts on the floor are apparently a safety hazard!
This in a rural environment.
I watched a magpie plant the acorn, like Chris did with the Jay.
I thought to myself, I'll dig that up later, but I didn't.
Come Spring there was a single shoot with three leaves and I thought to myself, I'll dig that up later, but didn't.
By Winter I thought to just prune it back but spared it among the rushes.
Next Spring I didn't see it, but when I went to pull the rushes in Summer the wee tree was as tall as they were and now had three branches too.
I again thought, I really need to dig that out......eventually I pruned it back, and it just keeps growing.
It's right beside my pond, and the pond is old and I am reluctant to dig there because the liner is becoming fragile and I really don't want to have to do all the work needed to replace it.
So, I have a sort of bonsai'd oak tree in the most awkward place imaginable just because I procrastinated about digging it up when it first grew.
One would think I would know better, we live right next to a woodland and I regularly pull out at least a hundred tree seedlings every single year. Birch and sycamore predominate, but elder, wych elm, willow, ash and oak are really heavy seeders. At times it's like living under a rain of seeds around here, especially when the silver birches let loose. They even end up in the plant pots on the bathroom windowsill, and I have to 'weed' my pot plants
Before anyone rails at me for howking out tree seedlings, I wouldn't get out the doors in a year if I left them to grow. Every planter, every plant pot, every border and every gap between slabs sprouts tree seedlings.
Beech though. I keep my beech hedge cut back enough that it doesn't flower and seed. It's a beautiful hedge, in every season, and it's full of life. There was a sparrowhawk busy rooting through it this afternoon trying to start the wee birds.
The hedge though has inevitably been infested with tree seedlings, so it now sprouts not only two hollys among it's branches, but a rowan and a quince too. I do pull out the elders that I spot coming up though.
M
I thought to myself, I'll dig that up later, but I didn't.
Come Spring there was a single shoot with three leaves and I thought to myself, I'll dig that up later, but didn't.
By Winter I thought to just prune it back but spared it among the rushes.
Next Spring I didn't see it, but when I went to pull the rushes in Summer the wee tree was as tall as they were and now had three branches too.
I again thought, I really need to dig that out......eventually I pruned it back, and it just keeps growing.
It's right beside my pond, and the pond is old and I am reluctant to dig there because the liner is becoming fragile and I really don't want to have to do all the work needed to replace it.
So, I have a sort of bonsai'd oak tree in the most awkward place imaginable just because I procrastinated about digging it up when it first grew.
One would think I would know better, we live right next to a woodland and I regularly pull out at least a hundred tree seedlings every single year. Birch and sycamore predominate, but elder, wych elm, willow, ash and oak are really heavy seeders. At times it's like living under a rain of seeds around here, especially when the silver birches let loose. They even end up in the plant pots on the bathroom windowsill, and I have to 'weed' my pot plants
Before anyone rails at me for howking out tree seedlings, I wouldn't get out the doors in a year if I left them to grow. Every planter, every plant pot, every border and every gap between slabs sprouts tree seedlings.
Beech though. I keep my beech hedge cut back enough that it doesn't flower and seed. It's a beautiful hedge, in every season, and it's full of life. There was a sparrowhawk busy rooting through it this afternoon trying to start the wee birds.
The hedge though has inevitably been infested with tree seedlings, so it now sprouts not only two hollys among it's branches, but a rowan and a quince too. I do pull out the elders that I spot coming up though.
M
Le Loup
Settler
I planted the acorns out in the forest, some survived some not. But then the conditions here are harsher than in the UK.
Keith.
