Four years ago two of our mature sycamores were overwhelmed with ivy from bottom to top. Dulwich College Estate, who treat all trees in their domain as their own, took on tree surgeons to cut the sap supply near ground level. Within a year the upper reaches of the ivy were dead. I would have liked it if they had removed all the strangulating dead ivy, given that is unsightly, but it would have been a helluva job, and very expensive. Now, four years later, the ivy has started re-growing and is already at chest height. It seems as tough as Japanese knotweed, and I dare say would be as difficult to remove and kill off entirely.
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The UK's Woodland Trust says "Ivy has long been accused of strangling trees, but it doesn’t harm the tree at all, and even supports at least 50 species of wildlife."Comment
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Well I suppose my reaction is "I hear what they say, but ..."Originally posted by ardcarp View Post
I have a couple of lime trees in my garden and they were heavily covered in ivy which acted like a sail and worried me considerably when we had strong winds. Killing it off was relatively simple - just cutting a gap in the ivy stems all round the trunk. The ivy died off and a tree surgeon could easily remove it.
I also had an old mulberry tree which the ivy had partly covered. I didn't have the same success there as the ivy "roots" dug deep into the bark and was impossible to remove or kill off. For an old mulberry I suggest that ivy is very harmful, especially as it isn't uncommon for their heavier branches to break off.Comment
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I'll resist the impulse to marvel at how my original post somehow was diverted to ivy and its discontents, and merely observe that, yes, ivy is wonderful in a huge tree that can bear it, but it choked nearly all the life out of my poor small pear tree. It's also threatening to do the same to an ancient May tree in the front garden. Self-improvement task #8: save May tree - ('See what I did there?' as Bradley Walsh says on The Chase)!
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