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Planting climbing roses at tree bases
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. |
#2
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Planting climbing roses at tree bases
On 6 Jul 2009 18:29:43 GMT, Al wrote:
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. I've never done this, and have no trees big enough, but I would say dig a bigger hole about 1 yard away from the trunk, and train the plant along the ground to the trunk. A 6" hole is not big enough. The tree will be taking all the goodness out of the soil, so you need a big hole, filled with some good compost. Yes, hacking away a big root will damage the tree. Pam in Bristol |
#3
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Planting climbing roses at tree bases
"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 |
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