whitehead1972

Evening all, in the past few weeks I've come across three cases of large, mature trees suddenly dying. The first case I thought was a case of lightning but now I wonder if it is more a case of low rainfall in the East London / Essex areas?

Has anyone else in East London / Essex noticed that many more than usual mature street and garden trees appear to have died suddenly since last winter? Willow, poplar and flowering cherry seem to be worst affected. Is this a result of the very dry 12 month period that ended in June?

Yes, English ivy. Many thanks for all the responses. Will take great care with it from now on.

Hello all. Has anyone on here been adversely affected after coming into contact with ivy. Yesterday I cleared an ivy-clad flowering cherry that was more ivy than cherry. I managed to get most off though some still remains. Halfway through I began to get a really bad headache and felt sick - so much so that clear up was a real struggle. As soon as I dumped the foliage I returned home and went straight to bed. I'd like to emphasise that it wasn't a skin reaction - just headache, pain and nausea. It is like something is able to leech through your skin into the bloodstream. I remember years ago a similar reaction but had forgotten about it until today. Anyway, 24 hours later I'm almost back to normal.