Dave Poole writes
snip Utterly fabulous and each
year it gets better and better. Easy to grow, never an embarrassment
and relatively disease free, what more could you want?

"Dave" wrote:
Well maybe a bit less lichen on the bark? I have a Tibetan cherry near
the kitchen window, but its bark is almost covered with grey lichen, so
the shiny mahogany bark isn't as visible as I'd like. I normally wash
down the silver birch - actually himalayan (Jacmontii??) - so they have
really white bark, and it looks very good. But I haven't done the
Tibetan cherry as its an older tree and the bark already looks pretty
rough.

Sacha writes
OTOH, the lichen is beautiful too and you have the consolation (presumably)
of knowing you live in very clean air! We were in the gardens at Tresco
once with Mike Nelhams, the curator, when someone asked him what to do about
the lichen on her trees back home - his answer was to the effect of leave it
alone and thank your god for it! ;-)

Yes indeed :-)) Although in the last 3 years I have started to be
overflown by planes from both Stansted and Luton, which I am not
particularly thrilled about. The irony is on most really sunny days they
have a different flight pattern and generally don't come over!

I was pleased to see how many I have acquired on some new stone
'mushrooms' (can't think of correct name atm) but they have only been
there for 5 or 6 years and are now grey, with several colours of white
/orange lichen on them, and the covering varies from one to the other,
presumably as microclimates are different - more sun /shade, less / more
wind / moisture.

--
David