"Victoria Clare" wrote in message .217...
At the bottom of my garden is a deciduous tree, or rather,now, trees, as
whatever it is has an extreme tendency to sucker - not just near the
trunk but even up from the roots many feet away from the parent.

It's got undistinguished knobbly brown bark, a couple of trunks up to
about 3 in diameter, and medium-sized green leaves that look a little
like small apple leaves, but rather smaller and finer.

The twigs tend to die back in winter, leaving a mass of brittle
deadwood, but this is not much of a problem for the tree, as it produces
many fast-growing shoots in spring and summer, and the snapped-off
deadwood stumps leave a scratchy feel almost as if the trunk had thorns.

The young shoots are flushed reddish, and quite delicate. The tallest
of the thicket is about 15 feet tall.

Apart from suckering like nobody's business, the trunks and thicker
stems hopefully put out small knobbly yellow roots at intervals. The
growth habit is more upright than that of an apple, and the twigs are a
lot finer.

I noticed today that some of it has put out some apple-like flowers,
though the flowers are not grouped in clumps, but single white or pale
pink dotted thinly among the top stems.

(The apple trees in my garden are not yet in bloom, to give a basis for
comparison in terms of timing, though an apricot and nectarine are in
full flower.)

Can anyone guess what it could be? And do I want to keep it?

(At the moment I'm thinking 'no, it's ugly - but on the other hand, how
on earth can I remove it? The suckering stems cover an area of perhaps
20 square feet, also inhabited by apple trees I'd like to keep, so
digging it up is not an option. I could perhaps fell the large bits and
use stump poison, but I'm not sure how well this would work on this
extremely vigorous plant which sprouts roots and suckers so
enthusiastically. I can't just mow off the suckers, because the ground
is too steep, and very uneven. )

Sounds rather like some of the things that were used as rootstocks for Apricots/Peaches etc here years ago. As you have
already anticipated - not at all easy to get without.

Rod