Twigs

A couple of weeks ago I worried, at reference 1, about the state of the oak tree in the back garden, a tree which has been shedding twigs and leaves since mid summer.

It continues to shed now we are into the Autumn, with the only difference seeming to be that the shed leaves are now brown and yellow rather than green. And that lots of leaf buds for next year coming down with the leaves of this year. And that quite a lot of dead wood is starting to be visible through the thinning foliage.

I may prune the dead wood that I can reach - with the German wolf pole reaching maybe fifteen feet with the steps - when the leaves are down, perhaps sometime in November.

But I will continue to worry about what will happen next year, having lost so many leaf buds this year. Is the tree really sick, or is it just a lack of water through the hot part of the summer just past?Will it spring back into life? Will the branches develop a leafy fur, after the fashion of some of the sickly (foreign) oaks down Horton Lane?

Shall I trouble the plant gurus at Wisley?

PS: I notice from google this morning that I can buy the wolf pole (of reference 2) over the internet for around £60, when I paid Chessington Garden Centre more than £80. For which mark up they offered a choice of actual tools which one could heft and handle. Which, as a very occasional buyer of such things, was worth it.

Reference 1: http://psmv3.blogspot.co.uk/2017/09/wind.html.

Reference 2: http://psmv2.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/autumn-cutlery-1.html.