Elm Trees

[Wendelspanswick]

Has anyone identified any Elm trees on their plots? I know that Dutch Elm disease has removed most of the mature trees from the landscape but I remember that when I worked in the sawmill that we still use to get mature elm butts in that had been felled in Northumberland as it was warm enough for the tree to flourish but too cold for the beetle?
I still see the occasional young elm in the hedgerows, I normally only notice them after they have died when they stand out like a sore thumb against everything else.

[oldclaypaws]

My Western Edge has quite a noticeable Elm presence. There are several in the hedge, dozens of mini ones typically a foot high springing up from the ground in dappled light, maybe a dozen healthy specimens up to 30 feet, and one quite chunky one about a foot wide by 50 feet high, growing out of a bank next to an oak. Its a very graceful and attractive tree, and possibly my favourite timber, being a rich grained warm nutty brown. I also notice a couple of old rotting dead trees in the same locality which look like they could have been Elm. Perhaps they are OK when young, but when they get big enough to host the beetles in the bark they succumb to the disease.

In a quirky sign of the changing world we live in, if you google Elm, the top entry that appears is East London Mosque !

[davetb]

We have an enormous decomposing stump surrounded nearly for 10 metres by only smaller elms ( presumably clones from roots of the stump). When they get to about 10 inches in diameter they are dying - from Dutch elm disease, I guess. Our wood is dotted with standing, long dead elm which is great firewood.
I was once told we have the same amount of elm now as before the 1970's but it is now lots of smaller trees as opposed to a fewer number of large ones. Don't know if that's true.

[Terry]

similarly have quite a number of small elms in clusters, the biggest at the moment are between 6 & 8" diameter.
Have a number of standing dead elms that have for the most part now fallen.

[oldclaypaws]

Might I ask Terry, are you by any chance a vampire?

I notice most of your posts are between the hours of about 2am and 6am when the rest of us are in the land of nod. Either you are on nightshifts and passing the time by swogging, an insomniac, or 500 years old and with an eye for virgin's jugulars. (?).

[Terry]

haha, would be nice if there was some exotic reason for the timing of my posts, but sadly it is the fact that I am at work and check in when things are a bit slow.
Less time for swogging when at home as normally in the woods or doing something else out of the house.
Not 500 years old but feeling a good part of the way there
I am on watch from midnight to midday. Wont go into too much detail for fear of incriminating myself , but my field of work is not unrelated to Meadowcopse's (former) generalised line of work.

[davetb]

Hi,
Here's a photo of our big rotten stump that I'm guessing is an elm.
I built a treehouse a few years ago, it it built on elm that are now dying.
The other photo shows the top of the dead elm, above the treehouse.
Every tree around the stump is an elm - except for a holly / hazel growing together.