Mutilated apple trees and mutated flowers

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We recently had a visit from a Rep from the Power Company, those who look after the overhead lines. It was that time again when they come round and ask if they can cut down any trees or hedges that come within about 6-10 ft of the overhead lines.
Been here before (!) when they topped out the apple trees, just when the fruit was ready to pick, you couldn’t put a foot to the floor between the apples.
This year at least they came earlier!
Yesterday was the day for action. Two very nice workmen arrived with a wood-chipper and discussed how many to chop down and how low.
They are old trees, very sprawling and we still hadn’t thinned out the rampant new growth from the last butchering, so I decided that about 8 ft and then try to keep the new growth under control, would be good.
If I managed to keep them fairly short it would save their regular visits. Think they ended up higher than that, but no problem.
They cut down four of the apple trees, which run in a row, and half (??) of the wild plum or Bullace. Literally half, the side nearest Boris’s shed is about 25ft tall, the other half is about 10ft.

They left the apple wood for the wood-burner next year and chipped the rest, so now I have a huge heap of wood chippings to use on the paths or add to the compost bin. They even chipped the heap of my neighbours Leylandii hedging which laid there waiting to be dealt with, just goes to prove that workmen can be really helpful.

One of the self-seeded foxgloves has obviously been ‘got at’ by something and has produced an open flower on the upper-most bud rather than the hanging bells it has on the rest of the stem. Bug or virus?

The other flower which seems to have mutated is the yellow pansy which over-wintered in the pot and this year has produced extra petals to the usual pansy.
Excuse my dirt-encrusted hand holding it! The edges have probably been eaten rather than grow like that, though I am not even sure of that! I have seen loads of ants on the pot of plants, which would suggest there are greenfly or similar about.
The purple and yellow pansy is there for comparison and is the normal form.

Always something new to look at in the garden!

• 22 May, 2014
• 4 likes

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