Look at the road behind you

[sovay]

Finally, the day is clear enough for me to get a good spring picture of the Jefferson elm on our street. I'm not sure how old it is, except not very. Per A Canterbury Tale (1944): "You can't hurry an elm."



My niece wanted to know what was so special about it, so I wound up explaining Dutch elm disease and the importance of resistant trees, like the survivor on the National Mall from which this sapling was cultivated. The city seems to have accepted us adopting it under the name of Bella Ptelea. That's pte-re-wa in Linear B.

Comments

[cmcmck]

All the wonderful elms around Canterbury, including in the village of Wickhambreaux where parts of the film were made, that I knew as an undergrad all went during that outbreak.

'Epitaph for the Elm' is a photographic book I picked up at the time and I still feel there's a poem there somewhere.

There are still a few skeletal elms in the landscape here in Shropshire.

[sovay]

'Epitaph for the Elm' is a photographic book I picked up at the time and I still feel there's a poem there somewhere.

I think you should write it. Maybe for Canterbury's elms. I have hardly ever seen one in the wild.

[ashlyme]

I've got "Epitaph for the Elm" too! I found it among a few books for sale (a few pence towards charity) at a one-day musical festival (oddly enough, at the pub that The Orion Arms is based on).

Edit: please do write that poem.

[cmcmck]

I've just essayed! :o)

[selkie]

*hugs*
AN ELM TREE, OMG. A REAL ELM TREE!

[sovay]

AN ELM TREE, OMG. A REAL ELM TREE!

RIGHT?!

*hugs*

[ashlyme]

Thank you so much for this! Elms are sort of mythical trees for me. They passed when I was very young. I don't know if my memory of them of standing in the field acoss the canal, thronged with rooks, is a true one. I hope so. My dad can recall them growing here. The next village/suburb up from here is called Elmdon Heath, so at least they live on in names. (The fictional stand-in for my home is Elmsford. It feels right.)

[sovay]

Thank you so much for this!

You're welcome! I hope to go back over the course of the spring and follow its progress. For the obvious reasons, it's a tree I know very little about.

Elms are sort of mythical trees for me. They passed when I was very young.

Chestnuts all but died out here even longer ago—the 1940's. I've seen them in the Arboretum, but I don't know that I've seen the original American rather than blight-resistant Chinese chestnut. Did you lose them, too?

I don't know if my memory of them of standing in the field acoss the canal, thronged with rooks, is a true one. I hope so.

I hope it is. I don't even have memories like that.

The next village/suburb up from here is called Elmdon Heath, so at least they live on in names. (The fictional stand-in for my home is Elmsford. It feels right.)

I like that.

[ashlyme]

*Did you lose them too?*

I think we were lucky over here with chestnuts. That wave left us alone. Everyone knows about conkers, it seems like an old, old English game - but the horse chestnut was only introduced to Britain in the 1700s. The sweet chestnut is the real old native, but you hardly see them. Hopefully they're common elsewhere in the country.

*I hope it is. I don't even have memories like that.*

Dream or memory, you're welcome to share mine.

[cmcmck]

You see sweet chestnuts in abundance in this part of Shropshire as there was a coppice industry historically and I also grew up with them down in Kent- to me, sweet chestnut coppice woodland is what woodland is although a lot of what we also have here is ancient oak forest. :o)

[jesse_the_k]

I remember seeing them dying, and I'm so glad to know they're coming back! After the elms died in Madison they foolishly replaced 1 to 1 with ash trees, which grow faster and have been savaged by the emerald ash borer in the last decade. Finally learning the lessons and replacing with a variety of street trees.

My intro to grassroots politics was my mother joining many other dendrophiles to keep sycamores on the banks of the Charles.

[sovay]

I remember seeing them dying, and I'm so glad to know they're coming back!

I hadn't known there were resistant cultivars until this one appeared on our street and I went to research it. I hope you see some where you are.

After the elms died in Madison they foolishly replaced 1 to 1 with ash trees, which grow faster and have been savaged by the emerald ash borer in the last decade.

Ouch. We have ash borer here, too, alas; it killed the tree that used to stand directly across the street from my office window.

Finally learning the lessons and replacing with a variety of street trees.

I wonder if that accounts for the diversity of trees Somerville has been planting—maple, willow oak, sweet gum, various kinds of maple, keyaki which I had never heard of before.

My intro to grassroots politics was my mother joining many other dendrophiles to keep sycamores on the banks of the Charles.

I'm so glad! Those trees are very important to me.

[nineweaving]

Oh, how lovely! There are still a few jealously coddled wineglass elms in the Yard. "She Undoes" is about one of them.

Nine

[sovay]

There are still a few jealously coddled wineglass elms in the Yard. "She Undoes" is about one of them.

I'm glad to hear that!

[a_reasonable_man]

Hope is a budding elm sapling.