Elm Street

[JimB]

Twice a year I wonder what the situation is with elms in the UK. Where I live, when the seeds fall and blow around it's like walking through the confetti from a hundred weddings.
Now spring is here they are sprouting everywhere even flower pots.
Any chance that they'll make a comeback in the UK?

 

[Selwyn]

They seem to die off when they get to a certain height

 

[MikeG.]

They seem to die off when they get to a certain height

There's some monsters around here. There are 8 or 10 good sized ones just across the road from me.

A local nursery has been collecting seeds from these seemingly-immune specimens, and is breeding up some stock to test for resistance, and for eventual re-planting in the wild.

 

[Deadeye]

Sadly I think they will be disappointed.
The fungus that kills them is spread by the elm beetle, which in turn only starts to enter the trees once the bark starts to crack.
There are isolated pockets of large trees where the disease didn't reach

 

[Phil Pascoe]

There's some monsters around here. There are 8 or 10 good sized ones just across the road from me.
A local nursery has been collecting seeds from these seemingly-immune specimens, and is breeding up some stock to test for resistance, and for eventual re-planting in the wild.

Apparently it is very unusual for them to grow from seed in this Country, they usually grow from suckering. This is one reason species become very susceptible to infections and pests - there tends to be very little genetic deviation, so resistance doesn't develop easily.

 

[JimB]

I wondered about that Phil, whether the higher temperatures reported recently in the UK would have the effect of making more seeds viable.

 

[eezageeza]

There are lots of elm cultivars currently 'under development' in the horticultural industry right now, some of which are showing good resistance to dutch elm disease, so I think there is a good chance that we'll see elms back in the english countryside in good numbers in the future.

I have several elms, raised from cuttings from a tree which survived the disease (when all its neighbours succumbed) and the oldest of them is now getting to the age when it will be susceptible to the disease. Fingers crossed!

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Iirc wych elms (Ulmus Glabra)are more resistant than English (Ulmus Procera).