People before animals

I have a hazel that twists and turns like a corkscrew so perhaps it's a contorted hazel. It was here when we moved in 6+ years ago but hasn't grown much. Can you get dwarf ones?

My mother gave me my contorted hazel for my 50th birthday so I'd have 'something to remember her by.' I laughed at the time and she's still with us but I will always treasure it.

Any straight suckers that appear need to be removed at the base because the tree will revert to a straight hazel if they are left. They make good plant stakes for a border though.

Shame to get rid of it- hazel can be coppiced right to the ground and start again- and coppiced again, and again- as it gets too high

I need another witch hazel to replace the one that perished in the big autumn clear-up of my garden. They cost the earth but are so good to have in flower in the winter.

Just ordered a contorted hazel!

Flower Gallen.

Contorted.

I had to have my twisted willow taken down last year too. It was huge. Sad, because I bought it from a DIY chain thinking it looked sad, and when we took it out of the sacking we found it had been left with hardly any root. My late DH nursed and nurtured it, and it recovered and flourished. I felt bad about having it felled but I'm sure he'd have understood.

The twisted hazels, Corylus avellana 'contorta' are slow growing. We have one which is fifteen years old and near the house. The catkins are wonderful for flower arranging.

I've always wanted a contorted willow!
So good for flower arranging.

for tress read trees

Deciduous tress virtually shut down in the winter AKA

We had a contorted willow which was a beautiful little thing but grew and grew like Topsy and was over 40ft and too near the house. Had to have it chopped down. I did give my sister a cutting, when I visited her last year the cutting was a splendid 30ft tall teenager, I was quite emotional

Aka

Your are correct about the willow.

The Somerset Levels/Moors are famous for their willows/withies. Basket making, fencing, thatching and even coffins etc. are a large part of the Somerset economy, along with farming.

Willows/withies are very eco friendly as they absorb carbons and are very hardy. t
There are many species of Willows. The willow is pruned by a method called 'pollarding' this produces the new wood called the withie. I presume that the flooding will do no harm to them as they absorb water but I am sure everybody knows that.

So had ours! Your DD obviously did a good job with yours, Galen!

It's been pruned!

It's done well not to have grown any higher! We had one which grew from an acorn in the garden, and had to have it cut down last year as it was becoming a problem where it was. It had grown to 15 ft in 12 years!

No! It's twelve foot!
Dd grew it from an acorn and was dwarfing it! It got put in the garden one summer and got forgotten. It grew!
That was about 36 years ago!
We still call it the bonsai oak

Thinking on (as one does) do (deciduous) trees use much water in the winter months? I'd have thought transpiration is much less when the leaves are gone?

Shouldn't that be 12" if it's bonsai?

My bottom garden is definitely soggy. I have a 12foot high bonsai oak, but that obviously isn't thirsty enough.

JessM, sorry, it was Swansea, not Cardiff. It was in the Guardian Environment section two days ago, and it's not a modest one any more. 10% of renewable energy, they are saying.

Just read the link.You just assume these so called experts know what they're doing. Turns out they don't!

You didn't blue it Granjura but I think this is the same theme
drowning in money

What a b****y c**k up

Apologies, I stand corrected Anno- of course the Jet Stream, thanks.

Here is a really interesting article that shows how complex the issues are ...

Really food for thought.

Drowning in Money

http://www.monbiot.com/2014/01/13/drowning-in-money/

More trees = more co2 absorbed and could start slowly to reverse the problem?? Or not (I am not a scientist). Surely they are not known as the lungs of the earth for no reason. We lose them at our peril