About a year ago I noticed a little tree sprouting out of the ground up against the wall of my ground floor flat. I am not entirely sure what kind of tree it is but a conifer of some sort - I am not particularly knowledgeable about these things - so I will just call it a 'christmas tree type tree'!! In the last year it has grown so much, it is now about 4 ft tall. Lovely though it is (and I would love to leave it) BUT I am concerned about the roots (eventually) causing damage to the building.
So here is my question - I don't want to kill it really but I think it can't stay where it is.
What are my options? if I keep chopping it back so that it stays small (ish) will the roots then also stay smaller? Or can I dig it up and replant it elsewhere in the garden (away from the property).
Any advice greatly appreciated. Thank you.

On Jan 5, 7:11*pm, JaneS wrote:
About a year ago\snip\
Any advice greatly appreciated. *Thank you.

--
JaneS


Conifers tend to have shallow, extensive roots. The tree is only a
couple of years old and should cope with a move. If digging it up be
very careful not to strip the protective skin from the roots or you
will kill it. Dig wide and deeply around the tree and try to lift it
with a good rootball of soil still attached. Plant in a hole pre-
prepared to a greater depth than you expect and adjust as you offer up
the tree for planting. Water thoroughly when planting and keep moist
for the first full year. In my experience, conifers cope with being
cut back but not severely; too heavy a pruning could kill it. A photo
would help in identification - if it turns out to be a Leylandii you
might not want to keep it.

Cheers,
Compo in Caithness

Thank you very much for your reply. Have now done a bit of research and one thing I do know is that is is NOT a Leylandii - I am rather an amateur at this but if I had to guess at it I would say it is a Douglas Pine - don't know if that would make any difference to your instructions though. Once again thanks for advice.

On Thu, 6 Jan 2011 13:20:30 +0000, JaneS
wrote:


Compo in Caithness;909336 Wrote:
On Jan 5, 7:11*pm, JaneS wrote:-
About a year ago\snip\
Any advice greatly appreciated. *Thank you.

--
JaneS-


Conifers tend to have shallow, extensive roots. The tree is only a
couple of years old and should cope with a move. If digging it up be
very careful not to strip the protective skin from the roots or you
will kill it. Dig wide and deeply around the tree and try to lift it
with a good rootball of soil still attached. Plant in a hole pre-
prepared to a greater depth than you expect and adjust as you offer up
the tree for planting. Water thoroughly when planting and keep moist
for the first full year. In my experience, conifers cope with being
cut back but not severely; too heavy a pruning could kill it. A photo
would help in identification - if it turns out to be a Leylandii you
might not want to keep it.

Cheers,
Compo in Caithness

Thank you very much for your reply. Have now done a bit of research and
one thing I do know is that is is NOT a Leylandii - I am rather an
amateur at this but if I had to guess at it I would say it is a Douglas
Pine - don't know if that would make any difference to your instructions
though. Once again thanks for advice.

Ah, no problem, then: if that really is what you've got, Douglas firs
only get to a maximum of less than four hundred feet high. You might
have one of the smaller ones, of course: they don't make more than
about seventy feet...just the job for the garden outside a flat.
Seriously, I think you should harden your heart and get rid of it. I'd
probably give the same advice about any self-sown unidentified conifer
to anybody who didn't have a very big garden to play with: you need to
choose what you have in your patch, rather than relying on guesswork.

--
Mike.

You can grow many kinds of conifer from seed, but many of them require human intervention in a British climate. So I'm not aware of Leylandii and its friends self-seeding. What certainly can self seed very easily are the commericially grown spruces - Sitka and Norway - which is precisely a "christmas tree type thing". Scots pine, yew and prickly juniper are native, so presumably they would self seed. You mention Douglas fir, and I think that self-seeds also. They look quite like spruces, so can be difficult to reliable identify a small plant without cones or flowers.

Our fast growing conifer hedge self seeds readily, which is why I've always assumed it to be a lawson rather than a leylandii. I'm not fond enough of the whole breed to have looked into the details of identification.

On Jan 7, 11:42*am, echinosum
wrote:
JaneS;909287 Wrote: About a year ago I noticed a little tree sprouting out of the ground up
against the wall of my ground floor flat. *I am not entirely sure what
kind of tree it is but a conifer of some sort - I am not particularly
knowledgeable about these things - so I will just call it a 'christmas
tree type tree'!!

You can grow many kinds of conifer from seed, but many of them require
human intervention in a British climate. So I'm not aware of Leylandii
and its friends self-seeding. *What certainly can self seed very easily
are the commericially grown spruces - Sitka and Norway - which is
precisely a "christmas tree type thing". *Scots pine, yew and prickly
juniper are native, so presumably they would self seed. You mention
Douglas fir, and I think that self-seeds also. They look quite like
spruces, so can be difficult to reliable identify a small plant without
cones or flowers.

--
echinosum

I live by a railway line and the Spruce from a nearby plantation seed
readily in all sorts of places from gravel to cracks in concrete. If
spruce it be then you would not be destroying a valuable asset if you
got rid Jane. However, it might make a nice crimbo tree in three
years time :-) Whether you move it or remove it is ultimately your
choice but try and identify it properly before making that decision.

"JaneS" wrote in message
...

About a year ago I noticed a little tree sprouting out of the ground up
against the wall of my ground floor flat. I am not entirely sure what
kind of tree it is but a conifer of some sort - I am not particularly
knowledgeable about these things - so I will just call it a 'christmas
tree type tree'!! In the last year it has grown so much, it is now
about 4 ft tall. Lovely though it is (and I would love to leave it) BUT
I am concerned about the roots (eventually) causing damage to the
building.
So here is my question - I don't want to kill it really but I think it
can't stay where it is.
What are my options? if I keep chopping it back so that it stays small
(ish) will the roots then also stay smaller? Or can I dig it up and
replant it elsewhere in the garden (away from the property).
Any advice greatly appreciated. Thank you.

I'd replant it away from the house.
I'm in terrible trouble from my 3 Lawson's cypressus as my neighbours claim
they are harming their house.
Funny that. I agreed to reduce them this month so no birds were nesting (as
they were when my neighbour said they wanted to put a fence up in July)
The trees never stopped their fence and they made no attempt to put one up.

I had my house underpinned in 03. The structural engineer said "your house
will never move again but at some time in the future your neighbour's house
will."

So, that's happening. Blame the trees. They were not found at fault in my
underpinning, my house was monitored for two years every few weeks by a
structural engineer to see what needed to be done eventually.
The letter I got said I had 6 trees. No, 3.
Also suggested not to fall out with my neighbours as it was not them
contacting me.
Too late. when a neighbour runs around my house banging on the windows
because I did not answer the door, it suggests we cannot discuss this
calmly.

Tina





--
JaneS