Steve Turner writes
Hi All,

I posted here a while ago about my eucalyptus trees. They had been pot bound
at my sister's but now in my garden. The stems weren't strong enough for the
leaves and were arching over. I was advised to cut them right back, one
person said maybe right away. I bit the bullet and did one last Autumn - it
survived, budding before winter - so did the other one early this Spring.
That is now budding.

So with that good advice I have another question :-)

I bought a whitebeam a couple of months ago from a supermarket. The main
reason I went for a whitebeam over the other choice they had (cherry) was
for the berries in the Autumn that the birds will eat. I'm not much of a
gardener and have only just realised something.

The whitebeam was grafted onto rowan root stock (if that's the right was to
say it) and tonight was when I realised, as I have two sets of leaves
growing. One main stem has whitebeam leaves but several from below the graft
have rowan leaves. These were all there when I bought it but nothing
occurred to me. As it happens rowans also produce berries that are loved by
birds.

I'm not sure what to do. Will both trees grow together so to speak? Or
should I keep cutting one right back?

Usually with grafted plants the rootstock eventually wins out. But there
is a long period when both are growing. I had a R moyesii and the dog
rose it was grafted on to both flowering at the same time (I've now got
rid of the dog rose suckers). At the moment I'm trying to strike
cuttings of a wayfaring tree that is the rootstock of a Viburnum - at
the moment it looks strange, a compact bush of the scented Viburnum
flowering profusely, with some taller branches of the wayfaring tree
also flowering profusely. Once I've got the cuttings going, I'll get rid
of the wayfaring tree.

So you choices are
a) cut back the rowan and keep the whitebeam
b) do nothing - for a while you'll get both but eventually I'd expect
the rowan to take over completely
c) cut back the whitebeam, and achieve the same result as 2) rather more
quickly.
--
Kay