After sawing through the trunk I managed to slip a piece of vinyl
floor covering in the gap to stop it from knitting together.After reading
your reply I removed this vinyl and was able to prise the gap open enough to
get a tape measure inside.The cross-section is eleptical, 6 1/4 inches by 9
inches (just).I had sawn as near to the soil as I could,but I little further
down it was bigger.The diabolical thing about ivy is that it does not
entwine itself around the wire but wraps over it and joins up on the other
side. Even the angle-iron post of the fence was ensnared.Now, over a year
after, I am still waiting for the larger bits to weather away so I can pull
them off without damaging the fence. Whenever I read the word 'hedera' my
brain says 'Hydra-head.
"Nick Maclaren" wrote in message
...
In article ,
jim wrote:
Once upon a time we had a pretty little indoor ivy with a dainty
variegated
leaf.We would feed and water it and train it up a short cane so that it
made
an interesting feature on a sunny window-sill. ... In
desperation we painted each leaf with a glyphosate-type gel and waited
until
it reached the roots which would then obligingly die leaving a useful
compost. Ah! but the ivy cannot read the instructions on the jar, can it
?
...
Ivy grows on derelict buildings and dead trees everywhere - and
that's
where it should stay.

Ivy doesn't read newsgroups, either :-)

I am a bit surprised by your posting, as ivy normally takes a LONG time
to reach 9" in diameter, and I hadn't heard that the variegated forms
regress to the dark green ones.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.