Delayed flushing of Ash Trees

[Rankinswood]

Has anyone else noticed that ash trees appear to be holding back from flushing out this year ?

The young ash trees in pots in my tree nursery have flushed out but the bigger more established trees still have tight buds.

Is this related to Chalara

Rankinswood

[Judith]

I'd noticed the same thing around here (Northants), so have just looked it up. I knew that ash trees are usually among the last species to flush and it's borne out here on the Forestry Commission website http://www.forestry.gov.uk/chalara

There's also an old rhyme "If the oak before the ash, then we'll only have a splash, if the ash before the oak, then we'll surely have a soak" which doesn't bode well . . .

[Rankinswood]

I am pleased report that the leaf buds on the big ash tree in my garden have at long last swollen and burst.

The giveaway indicator was when I saw the wood pigeons pecking rather precariously at the ends of the branch tips on the emerging tender shoots.

I wonder what has caused this late flushing this year ? Notably we have had very little frost and it has been a very wet this winter.

Both Oak and beech are now fully flushed.

Rankinswood

[Dexter's Shed]

I noticed one of my ash is just in the early stages of budding, whilst everything around it is in full leaf, presume this is what your on about