Ever seen anything like this?

It will be interesting to see how long it survives!

Don't know why I spotted it Snoop - I was just cutting back the worst of the jungle and it caught my eye. (the hawthorn not the jungle)

Not sure whether to leave it Melchi, just to see what happens, or to move it now while its still manageable. I don't feel a strong need for any more hawthorn right now...

It's decided it wants to be an epiphyte :D

that's unusual! hope it grows, and doesn't harm its host much, though whether the roots will split the host-wood depends on how strong each is

Lol Hywel.

I don't really want it to grow Fran - there is enough foliage in that corner already without adding more prickles! Will leave it for a bit though, out of curiosity.
Talking of prickles I found the outer prickles of a dead little hedgehog today near where the badger comes through. Poor little thing, nobody warned it to stay away from here.

maybe it could be taken out and planted elsewhere, if you decide you want to keep it - if not, there's a simpler option!

When I used to be a Cub Leader, we went to a campsite sort of out of London (ish) - we saw a couple of "empty hedgehogs" there too, Seemed that at least one of the local foxes had worked out how to make a hedgehog unroll.

Planting it elsewhere is definitely not an option - we cut down a young aspiring one only yesterday. Enough is as good as a feast!
Re the hedgehog, its so sad isn't it, but I guess badgers and foxes have to live too - after all we eat meat ourselves, at least most of us do. This was only a baby though.

Strange things sometimes happen with trees - there is a tree growing inside another tree here, at the bus station in town. I've looked at the two trees many times over the course of the 14 years we've lived here. I've often wondered how it was possible for them to live together like that. I think they are a Lime tree with a much smaller Elderberry tree growing in a nook of the lower branches. How it manages to survive I can't imagine but survive it does & for more than 14 years as well!

Thank you for this reply Balcony - its very interesting that one should have lived happily for so long. it is tempting to leave this to see what happens but I really don't need another hawthorn, especially just there as its bear the gate. Does the elderberry flower?

Yes it does! It has great big flat heads filled each one with thousands of tiny white flowers! These are followed by big hanging bunches of small shiny black berries. Some people make Elderberry wine from them!

What I meant was, does the one you mentioned actually flower? I have a self sown elder in the garden and make tea with the flowers but the birds usually get to the berries first! it has to stay there because you probably know it is the witches tree and you can't cut it down without her permission!

From whom do you seek permission, Stera?! And is it an insult or a compliment?! ;-)

I don't know Melchi - maybe you just ask the tree! Funny I'm not in the least superstitious normally but do tend to apologise when I cut a branch off - how daft can you get???

Well - I'm not at all superstitious either, but I know exactly what you mean. I talk to insects, snails, slugs etc . Why not trees? Nothing daft about that!

Quite soon after I had my first born, I was out walking - with the pram, obviously - and I met a fellow mum I'd been in hospital with. She asked me why I was talking to my baby, when he obviously couldn't understand me !!! I'm not often lost for words..!

Stera, I had not heard that the elder was the witches tree! A large one used to grow in the old allotments on the corner of my garden and when turned back into working allotments, some years back, it was cut right down. I was really pleased to see it had grown back to about 12ft.tall last year. Obviously had not sort her permission!!! Just love to see the flowers and the black berries.

Babies can hear in the womb, never mind in the pram - they can appreciate music even then. Anyway babies learn to talk through listening to their nearest and dearest - I think the woman you met needs educating!

I don't normally talk to snails, except to apologise if I accidentally tread on one. Which doesn't make much sense as i do use slug pellets that kill far more slowly. I don't ever recall actually conversing with a slug though.
Do try elderflower tea next year, its very nice and refreshing.

OH is the one for talking to insects. He gently reassures greenfly, for example, as he relocates them into the garden, often asking me where he should put them. I'm very restrained, and usually suggest the nearest weed.

Relocating greenfly is one too many for me. I did go to the trouble of looking up the food plant of the elephant hawk moth caterpillar when i found a sad looking one on the lawn, but it died before we got there - shame as I had a bit of willowherb all ready for it! (I think the cat had been poking at it) At least now I can get rid of the willowherb with a clear conscience!

Yes Linmar, the flowers are lovely. The berries disappear as they ripen so we never get the chance to see a ripe head of them!

lol Linmar, that's why I've long wanted one - the Witch Tree - and Witch Hazel, of course - I did think about a whole Witch Bed, if not a compltee Witch Garden.

I think, in the Tree Lore books and websites, there's more about the Elder than most other trees - apart from Ash, I think, though I'm not going to swear to it.

You could compromise Fran and plant a Sambucus nigra still an elder but with lovely dark red leaves and pink flushed flowers. Probably a better bet for a small garden - you can prune it to keep it to about five feet if you want to.
I'd like a witch hazel too, for the flowers not the name, but apparently they like alkaline soil which we haven't got.

I did check out mini-Elder, or at least dwarf, and saved a few links, which I've got to re-find. The first Elders I ever saw were in the side garden of the local charity communal garden - they'd been left so long that the branches reached down to the gorund, arching, so that there was a secret tunnel between the trunks and the stem-tips.

I did think about putting some plants in tubs, those that need special soils, but so far thinking about it is as far as I've got

Dwarf elder is not a small edition of the ordinary one, it is a totally different variety, and reputed by many to be toxic. I do think one of the sambucus nigra with red leaves (eg Black Lace) would suit you better.

Do you know what sort of soil you have?

errrr ... I meant to get a soil testing kit, but then I'd also need someone to read the results for me. as for consistency, it's not clay-ey, drains well, is about all I can say. I've seen pcis of the Nigra, it does look nice.

You don't have to fiddle about with chemicals if you just want to find out if you are acid or alkaline - you can get a little metre with probes you stick in the ground. Your gardener would read it for you, it only takes a few minutes. Easier still just find out what your neighbours are growing if you can see - if there are rhododendrons and blue hydrangeas it will be acid and if the hydrangeas are pink or red it will be alkaline. Can you tell if your soil is sandy and light or sticky and heavy?

it doesn't seem heavy at all, not hard to break up, but it does seem to dry out quite quickly at the top, so it looks like it drains very well.

Don't think I've seen any hydreangeas - not sure I'd recognise Rhdadingdongs as easily. But the soil is growing Fuschia, Quince, Rose bush, Sprirea, Pieris, Holly, geraniums, Welsh and Californian poppies, so if Elder takes the kind of soil those plants like it'd be ok.