Thank you for your thoughts David. I think we will dither about the idea
for
a bit longer. There are two more elms to come down first anyway. (They got
big enough to recatch dutch elm disease)

When my mother's large eucalyptus was badly damaged in a storm, she had it
cut down to near the base and it regrew quit happily and is still there 20
odd years later.

In our previous home we had a number of elm trees in the hedges and when
they died back, I contacted the forestry commission who said to leave them.
Apparently it is not warm enough in the UK (despite being 'English' elms) to
flower and set seed instead the propagate bu suckering. At least that's what
I was told.

Jonathan


Useful comment re your mother's eucalyptus, thank you. What part of the
country was that?

As for the elms, they certainly sucker madly but they also flower when big
enough. The spread of youngsters is sufficient that I am sure some of them
are seedlings even if only a small proportion of seeds were viable. (This is
North Wales, but at low level.)

T.