Advice re 3 trees in our garden

[kingfisher46]

I would be obliged if we could get some advice about trees which were in our garden when we moved in last year. It was winter when we viewed the house and the trees were bare, we didn't notice how big they were until the leaves started appearing! We are in a bungalow and our next door neighbours are bungalows as well. They were built in 2003 and the previous owners of our property must have planted the trees, we don't know when exactly so they are all no more than 18 years old. We've identified one of the trees online as a Tibetan cherry because of the very distinctive and beautiful bark. It is planted right next to the boundary fence with our neighbours behind us and is overhanging in to their garden. We wondered whether it will get any bigger? I measured the circumference of the trunk at the bottom which is 58 inches, I'm not sure if that is relevant information. It's the smallest in height of the three trees but it has a very big crown and wondered what time of the year it should be cut back? Our garden isn't that big and we feel the trees are far too big for the size of it. We also just read online that Tibetan cherry trees are toxic to cats and dogs. We have got a cat and the neighbour whose garden it's overhanging has got two dogs who are outside a lot of the time so that is worrying us. It's a beautiful tree and we want to keep it but if it's going to harm our cat or the neighbour's dogs then we would need to get rid of it. The other two trees are the same variety but we can't identify them online. They are deciduous and have green leaves and variegated leaves. They are both about 25  to 30 feet high, they are next to the perimeter fence with our next door neighbour and are encroaching in to their garden. We would be obliged if anyone could identify them for us and let us know if they will grow any bigger. We will need to get tree surgeons out to look at them if we decide to get them cut back or remove some of them. We'd hate to chop down trees as the birds love them but they are really big and they are all quite close to the house. If we got them all cut back we wondered how quickly they would grow back again as we don't want the expense of tree surgeons every few years. If the Tibetan cherry is poisonous to our cat or the neighbour's dogs then we don't want to keep it. I've attached some photos, thanks for any info anyone can give us. 

Edited September 8, 2021 by kingfisher46
Typo

[peds]

Hi Kingfisher, 

Just a wee bit of advice, you'll get a bit more in the way of responses to your thread if you edit in the following sentence:

 

"I've had a local tree surgeon look at the trees who said they are all dangerous, and he'd take them out for £2000."

 

That should help give it some legs. Best of luck! 

Edited September 8, 2021 by peds

[Patrick goulding]

In my opinion they just want pruning. That’s if you don’t want them removed. But if you don’t want to be paying out to have work carried out every so often I think you have answered your own ? You no what needs to be done pay the once remove them and the problem is solved. As for poisoning pets I don’t no about that. But on your photos in my opinion  they just need reducing. Look for another well recommended tree surgeon/arborist in your area and ask there advice. 👍 

Edited September 9, 2021 by Patrick goulding

[Stere]

I reckon they are attractive looking nice shaped   small trees that don't need anything doing to them, and personally wouldn't either prune or remove either unless you have  other plans for using the space in garden  etc.

 

Tibet cherry max height  30ft -  google, so a species that doesn't look likely a tree to grow massive, variagated popular unsure says can reach 60ft but maybe  its a cultivar variety that won't grow that big ?

 

 

But if you dislike trees genrally and don't want to prune as will lead to ongoing costs best  get several quotes for there removal. Prunining wpuld be an  ongoing job if you wanted to maintain them smaller that  there current size....

 

 

Dendrophobia - The Fear of Trees

Edited September 9, 2021 by Stere

[Khriss]

Gorgeous Cherry that, a feature tree - light pruning. K

[kingfisher46]

2 hours ago, Stere said:

I reckon they are attractive looking nice shaped   small trees that don't need anything doing to them, and personally wouldn't either prune or remove either unless you have  other plans for using the space in garden  etc.

 

Tibet cherry max height  30ft -  google, so a species that doesn't look likely a tree to grow massive, variagated popular unsure says can reach 60ft but maybe  its a cultivar variety that won't grow that big ?

 

 

But if you dislike trees genrally and don't want to prune as will lead to ongoing costs best  get several quotes for there removal. Prunining wpuld be an  ongoing job if you wanted to maintain them smaller that  there current size....

 

 

Dendrophobia - The Fear of Trees

Thanks for your reply. We don't dislike trees at all but just thought they were getting out of control for the size of the garden and encroaching on the neighbours. We haven't spoken to them yet to see if they are annoying them so we will have to take that in to account if they are.  So the two trees we couldn't identify are poplars?  Thanks for that info we can look in to them more online.

[kingfisher46]

1 hour ago, Khriss said:

Gorgeous Cherry that, a feature tree - light pruning. K

Yes it really is a beautiful tree and we definitely want to keep that one if we can but were just concerned when we read cherry trees are poisonous to cats and dogs.  We will get advice from a tree surgeon as it is overhanging the neighbours garden quite a lot so hopefully they can rectify that.

 

[kingfisher46]

3 hours ago, Patrick goulding said:

In my opinion they just want pruning. That’s if you don’t want them removed. But if you don’t want to be paying out to have work carried out every so often I think you have answered your own ? You no what needs to be done pay the once remove them and the problem is solved. As for poisoning pets I don’t no about that. But on your photos in my opinion  they just need reducing. Look for another well recommended tree surgeon/arborist in your area and ask there advice. 👍 

Thanks for your reply.  We definitely want to keep the Tibetan cherry as long as long as it's not going to be harmful to our cat or the neighbour's dogs. We'll look for a local tree surgeon about the other two trees and speak to the neighbours to see how they feel about them.

[peds]

If the neighbour's dogs have survived so far, they are unlikely to start chewing on it any time soon. 

[Will C]

Fell fell the pops they will get much bigger (read more expensive) to do so later. Eco plug to kill or grind out the stumps depending on budget and future plans. If you want to keep them small it will be a ongoing cost.

 

The cherry is a cracker, if it’s not killed any animals yet your fairly safe. If you must prune it do so in summer after it has flowered (look up silver leaf in cherry trees).

[kingfisher46]

On 09/09/2021 at 18:14, Conor Wright said:

Fwiw my advice would be to remove the pops, they will potentially outgrow their positions relatively quickly. Wouldn't touch the cherry. That's a specimen and an asset to the garden. As regards it being poisonous to pets, it's highly highly unlikely they will voluntarily consume enough to actually poison themselves.The risk is virtually nil. There is a long list of potentially poisonous plants which are commonly found in gardens, I wouldn't be concerned about it to be honest. 

Thanks for your reply.  We've been reading up on poplar trees and were shocked to see how quickly they grow and how big!  I don't know why the previous owners planted them in what isn't a big garden. It looks like they have never had them pruned so we are thinking that we will have to get rid of them. As another poster said the neighbours dogs have been okay so far and they've lived there for a number of years. We'll get a tree surgeon out to give advice about having the Tibetan cherry pruned.