Parkgate

[parkgate]

We bought a new house in July - there is a large copper beech in the garden.

 

Will it lose its leaves in the winter?

 

Thank You 

[skyhuck]

4 minutes ago, Graham said:

It's something I remember from college.  I know young beech retain their juvenile leaves but old beech hedges will as long as they are trimmed.  Perhaps there's a link between the production of auxins and 'juvenility'.  Been a long time since I was at college and I'm now going to delve a little.

Trimming hedges makes them remain juvenile, pretty obvious really as the new growth can only be as old as the time from the last cut.

 

I remember removing a 60ft laylandii that had a trunk that was 18"thick, all it neighbours were 8ft tall with trunks under 6", they were all planted together, but but the small hedge trees were trimmed annually, the large one had been left "to see what it would do".

[treeman]

Young oak, beech and hornbeam will/can retain their leaves because the abscission cells haven’t developed. When these sp have been trimmed as a hedge they have been kept in their “zone of juvenility” . This is how I understand it. Can anybody elaborate?