Death by Black Walnut

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We have had a few complaints this summer from people who bought trees from us that died.  When you sell as many as we do, this happens sometimes (and we replace them under guarantee so all is not lost, dear customer!)

However I noticed with a couple that Black Walnut (although not dead) was on the order.  To the Latin scholar chemists amongst you that should tell you all you need to know.   For the rest of us it might be a mystery unless you are lucky like me and happened to see an information leaflet on the stand of Hadlow College who were strutting their stuff at the Chelsea Flower Show this year.

I must admit I sort of knew something about black walnut’s ability to kill other trees but the students of Hadlow made it very clear.  Black Walnut is called Juglans nigra in Latin.  Juglans is the root (no pun intended) for juglone which is an allelopathic drug. That means it stunts or kills.  And black walnut is the biggest natural produced of juglone, which it uses to great effect to kill unrelated plants and trees nearby. If you have a black walnut and trees and shrubs relatively nearby suffer wilting, yellowing foliage and either die or stop growing, now you know why.

So here is (as the Americans would say) – the take away.  Mother nature likes balance, so there are a number of plants that don’t mind juglone and so can be planted near your black walnut. They include:

 Acer negundo (Box Elder)
 Acer palmatum (Japanese Maple)
 Acer rubrum (Red Maple)
 Acer saccharinum (Silver Maple)
 Aesculus (Horsechestnut)
 Betula pendula (Silver Birch)
 Betula nigra (Black or River Birch)
 Catalpa bignonoides (Indian Bean Tree, Foxglove Tree)
 Cornus Mas (Cornelian Cherry)
 Crataegus (Hawthorn)
 Cydonia oblonga (Quince)
 Fagus (Beech)
 Gleditsia triacanthos (Honey Locust)
 Juniperus (Junipers)
 Liquidamber styraciflua (Sweetgum)
 Liriodendron tulipifera (Tulip tree)
 Picea abies (Norway Spruce)
 Platanus (Plane)
 Prunus serotina (Black Cherry)
 Pyrus calleryana (Pear)
 Quercus (Oak)
 Rhus (Sumach)
 Robinia pseudoacacia (Black Locust)
 Tilia platyphyllos (Broad leaved Lime)
 Tsuga (Hemlock)
 Ulmus (Elm)
 Viburnums

Relax and enjoy watching your garden grow!

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Death by Black Walnut by Julian de Bosdari is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.
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Blueberry Plants – New Varieties

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We sell a lot of plants each year and having only a few hundred of something popular tends to cause more trouble than it is worth – you sell out before the season has started and only end up upsetting people.

Well, we have been building our stock of blueberries to the point where we will at least last the month of November. Blueberries, of course, as “in” – they are amazingly healthy and given acid soil (post on the subject coming) they are wonderfully easy to grow.

So we have two new entrants to the Ashridge Trees list, an early blueberry called (amazingly) Earliblue that you pick from the beginning of July and a whopper of a cropper, Chandler that produces fruit through the whole of August and September.  Both are container grown (in 1.5 litre pots which is ideal for quick establishment) and are extremely well priced…

Hope you like them.

Rabbits eating your plants

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Rabbits are a complete pain if you happen to grow hedging and trees and fruit for a living. Cute looking they may be, but they have a horrid habit of biting branches straight through (usually close to the stem) and of tearing leaves off plants they don’t bite…

We have a standing out area at Ashridge Trees where we have a fair number of potted hedge plants – escallonia, griselinia, pyracantha, photinia and so on. I walked out there this morning to find that a rabbit or rabbits had bitten through the electrified rabbit proof fence (yes, bitten and no sign of a dead one) and plundered the plants. Actually they had plundered the Elaeagnus ebbingei Limelight with barely a glance at the rest.

I guess the silver lining is that we know that Elaeagnus is not a good idea as a hedge plant when rabbits are about.

I must tell Frances …..

Cut the Cordon now!

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This is just about pruning cordons – there is a much longer piece on growing cordon fruit trees if you would like to know more.

Cordons should be pruned every year around mid August (i.e. about now). Your cordon is ready for pruning when the new side shoots from the main stem(s) become woody at their base. Shorten all of this new growth from the main stem to 3 or 4 leaves above the basal cluster of leaves at the base of the shoot – see the diagram below.
Where a shoot from the main stem has a side shoot coming of it, prune this also – to one leaf above the cluster of leaves its base.

Summer Pruning Cordon Fruit Trees

Pruning Cordons

Pruning of fruit trees is generally carried out in winter or early spring. Cordons are different in that you restrict their growth by pruning now and the ideal cordon is compact and covered in fruiting spurs (which this treatment encourages).

You can use this technique on any shape of fruit tree if you wish to restrict its size but at the same time ensure it produces lots of fruit.  The trick is to use a M9 semi-dwarfing or MM106 semi-vigorous rootstock

We hope your plants have grown well this summer (certainly not much need to water!)

Watch your plants grow, and enjoy!

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