"Al" wrote in message
. 4...
The Mrs has a thing about climbing roses. She's already managed to nearly
strangle a plum tree with a climber, and now another one is shooting up
our
oldest pine tree.

Latest plan is to put another one in to 'improve' another plum tree. But
apparently the gardener keeps hitting 'something hard' a few inches away
from the trunk.

I tried to explain that that's where the thicker roots would be radiating
from, but she's determined to get the 'obstruction' hacked through and get
the climber in.

Q1: Does hacking through tree roots significantly damage the tree? Looking
at a 6" hole at tyhe base of a 12" diameter trunk.

Q2: Do climbing roses do any damage to fruit trees? The two existing
climbers are going mental - Must put a lot of weight on the tree branches.

Cheers,

Al.


Hi Al,

I'm the gardener in this establishment so I have some sympathy for your good
wife. However, even I wouldn't train a rose into a plum tree because of the
extra weight on its branches (plum tree branches in fruit are often under
strain anyway). If the rose is not too big, she could coil it around the
trunk. This would improve flowering because the rose branches would be
almost horizontal, so more flowering laterals would be produced. It would
be much easier to prune the rose and, indeed, easier to spray it if
necessary. The planting hole should be 2-3ft (60-90cm) away from the base
of the trunk. I have seen plantings at 18" (45cm), but that is rather
close.

I think I have to say that damaging a substantial root would be bound to
damage the tree. It's hard to see how it wouldn't. Maybe, in the long
term, it would recover, but it's not a risk I would like to take.

Whether climbing roses harm trees or not rather depends on the tree, the
rose, and the potential size of both and, in particular, the size of the
host tree at planting time. To generalise horrendously, it happens in
nature so it can't be all that bad. In reality, it can go horribly wrong
because the rose can cause excess windage on the tree. It also competes for
water and nutrients leading, potentially to poor specimens of both. Because
you ask specifically about fruit trees, my inclination would be to use a
light weight climber (such as clematis) or to use a smaller climbing rose
twined around the trunk only. Bear in mind that roses and plums both suffer
from aphids; to combine the two means you can't spray the 'conjoined' plants
if you intend to eat the plums. Before you eat the crop, of course, you
will need to pick it and this is the other problem: seeing the plums - let
alone picking them - will be much harder in a rose-thronged tree.

My apologies to your wife. I do love to see roses growing into trees, but
I'm not too happy that a plum tree makes an ideal host. Certainly, she
needs to plant further away from the trunk if she can't be moved from her
vision. However, my absolutely final word is: she's the gardener ... the
gardener rules ...especially if she cooks your dinner! :~)

Spider