Just Another Tree Rant! - Jun 01, 2010
I have been reading lots of articles in the paper recently about people getting cranky with councils about their street tree selection.
Poplar trees are lifting up driveways in Harrington Park and White Cedar trees are attracting plagues of caterpillars in Mt Annan. In Narellan, London Plane trees are dripping sap on cars and the hairy leaves and flowers are causing respiratory problems. I noticed that there was no mention in any of the articles about how much shade they provided or how they beautified the streets in these suburbs.
There is no escaping the fact that these trees were poor choices for suburban use and if you visit your local nursery you will not find them in stock. The problem with these hysterical stories is that they give all trees a bad name.
In truth if it was left to the owners almost no trees would get planted and those that were, would be a miss mash of varieties that would simply look terrible. People would still be complaining about trees because almost everyone has become leaf phobic. That means we love leaves but we don't want them falling on our driveways or in our pools.
We want the world to be cooler but we want other people to plant the trees and far enough away so we don't have to use a blower.
Tim Pickles is a CNP horticulturist and director of Tim's Garden Centre 2 Queen St Campbelltown 46267022.