Nell

Thanks for replying. If the tests conclusively say the trees have been poisned then I will probably confront said neighbours and ask them if they have seen anyone lurking near the fence beside the trees. As their garden has a security locked entrance then they will obviously not be able to explain how someone else has managed to get to the trees. I'm also tempted to go down the route of sticking a large banner on the trees as previously suggested.

Thank you for your suggestions. Does anyone know how long the poison would be evident in the leaves and are there other labs that will test for poisoning ? My son has suggested having the trees carved into a giant V sign.

Bartletts charge £510 + vat for full suite chemical analysis and £240 + vat for glyphoshate/ AMPA test ( I'm not sure what AMPA is ) I have letters that the neighbours have sent regarding the trees and may consider takingegal action for criminal damage.

A tree specialist has looked at 3 trees in my garden and come to the conclusion that the near death of them ( their leaves suddenly discolured and dropped May/June last year ) is due to malicious damage. There is one hawthorn and two large sycamores. The sycamores were in the garden when we bought the house about 30 years ago and so were large ,well established trees. Last year they came into leaf in the spring and looked normal until the sudden loss of leaves. I was told last year ( by a different person ) that it was probably due to environmental issues and it was suggested that I needed to water the trees - 2 other sycamores in the same line were unaffected however. I hoped that this year the trees may have recovered but apart from small clumps of foliage emerging from the trunks the branches are bare and looking brittle The neighbours whose gardens adjoin the line of trees have tried to get me to remove the trees since they moved in but I pointed out to them that the trees were very obvious when they bought the property and if the trees were causing issues their survey would have highlighted this Anyway, I have been told I could have the foliage tested for signs of poison but this is costly and as the damage was inflicted last year I wondered if the poison would still be evident. I have a tree surgeon coming next week to take off the dead wood and I need to decide if I want him to harvest some of the foliage to send for testing. Does anyone know of other places other than Bartletts lab that offer this service so I could get a price comparison?