"animaux" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 1 Nov 2003 08:41:15 -0600, "cat daddy"
opined:


Oh, I understand.... Just two more for my list of misperceptions,
just
like the red tips that I assumed were native because they were
everywhere.
The waxleaf is invasive. I don't even know where they came from.........
and please, no bad comments on Mimosas or I'll have to stick my fingers
in
my ears and hum...

There is a Texas mimosa which will far outlive any other. They are a
pretty
tree. I don't know of many problems with those.

Whew! I've got half a dozen that volunteered in just the right places in
my front yard. I like 'em a lot.

Hackberries wrecked my house and allowed me to be able to afford to
buy
it. They also stunted the pecans, the redbuds and everything else they
outgrew. I like to appreciate them from a distance...... }:-)

Thanks for your reply, as ever.

Well, our hackberry is a horrible looking mess! It's not exactly a nice
looking
tree. Hey, it shades the house.

I kinda like them when they are a gnarled, broken mess as long as they
are far away from any structure or fence that I prefer not be damaged.

Now, are you saying that a hackberry wrecked your house before you bought
it,
bringing the price down so you could afford it? I didn't get that
reference.

Yeah, my house was built in the 20's and was left abandoned after the
owner died in the early 80's. A huge hackberry was allowed to grow *into*
the front corner of the house, and another dropped a limb that crushed the
back kitchen addition. Over seven years, the water damage almost completely
rotted the backside, lowering the value to almost nothing, which allowed me
to buy it on a theatrical technician's income......... }:-)
The front tree was magnificent (a 4.5 x 2.5 stump and 60+ feet tall) and
if it wouldn't have been a hackberry, I would have remodeled around it. It
was cool having a tree trunkcoming through the bedroom wall. I agonized, but
I knew it would crush my house one day. Every hackberry in the vicinity had
done some damage to something.
So, I cut it down a week before the big wind storm of a few years back
that knocked down trees all over town and right before the city's brush
pick-up. It filled up 7 and 1/2 semi-trucks......... This may have
contributed to the restrictions they placed on the program later...
I kept the other tree in back (on the other side of the fence) trimmed so
that if it fell, it would fall into the neighbour's yard. Sure enough, a
storm snapped the trunk off and it went the way I had hoped.
But, I owe that hackberry a debt of gratitude for wrecking my house and
destroying its value so I could afford to buy it. And, the damn thing
sprouted back from the stump with dozens of shoots........... I'll be
keeping my eye on it...... }:-)

You're welcome, as ever, for my reply!

Victoria