Dear Sibe,

Last November we had a very large cherry tree chopped down. Visually, it has been a great improvement - the garden looks larger and is lighter, but roots are appearing everywhere and are producing shoots. When I last pulled them out I removed about twenty shoots from the lawn alone! Help!

Sarah Glynn.

Our Gardening Expert replies:

Hi Sarah,

This problem of roots producing new shoots is quite common when large trees are removed. The root system of many cherry trees is quite close to the surface which compounds the problem.

The tree is able to do this because it has a very large root system designed to extract plant foods from the soil to fuel growth in the tree above ground. Normally this growth will be spread through the whole tree which would grow at a moderate rate. As all the top parts of the tree have been removed, however, this potential growth is forced through the few available growth points left - in other words, nodes on the roots from which shoots can be produced.

In the long run, if you kept removing these shoots the problem would eventually stop (apart from the inevitable crop of fungi on the lawn as the roots are broken down by natural decomposition processes).

Apart from waiting and removing each shoot as it appears (which may be the easiest option) there are two things that you could do. Firstly, you could spray the emerging shoots with glyphosate as soon as they have produced a couple of leaves. This is a systemic herbicide which will spread and kill some of root. However, it is highly unlikely it will kill the whole of the root system from one application. It is more likely to only dispose of the part of root immediately below the shoot, so this may take time as well.

If you are brave enough you could attempt to manually remove the roots by digging them out. This is not a task you would want to enter into lightly, as digging roots out is one of the most difficult excavation jobs you could attempt!

My advice would be to put up with the shoots and remove them when they appear, or if they become a real problem try the glyphosate approach.

All the best,

Sibe.

For ideas on unusual trees to include in your garden, see Candle Tree and Tropical Trees - as well as ideas for keeping those nosey neighbours out in Away from Prying Eyes!

The top right-hand picture is of an Ornamental Cherry 'Prunus x blireiana', available from Crocus.