Growing Things: The lifespan of the mountain ash

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Q: I am so grateful that the Journal offers us the opportunity to ask you gardening questions. It really is appreciated and your answers are always so easy to understand that you have inspired me to write in as well. I have a mountain ash tree that is 35 years old. It has been a beautiful tree for all those years but this last summer something strange happened. It leafed out just fine but in early July half of the leaves just turned brown and began to drop off. I have searched the tree for any signs of insects or disease and can find nothing. I am hoping you might have some ideas for me.

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A: Thank you for your kind words. My hunch is that your tree might be reaching the end of its lifespan. The lifespan of the European mountain ash is 25-30 years so yours has reached a ripe old age. When a tree reaches the end of its lifespan it starts to weaken and stresses such as a very hot summer or a very dry winter and spring can adversely affect it and trigger its demise.

One of the benefits of growing a mountain ash is that they are very fast-growing trees. The downside to this rapid growth is a reduced lifespan. I have heard of some mountain ash that were grown under ideal conditions that reached 40 years of age but those are very few and far between. I wish I had a better outlook but I suspect that this is what is happening to your tree.

Q: I need help to figure out what to do with the sunflower plants that I grew this summer.  I do not remember the name or variety of the seeds that I planted. They are very tall (some over four meters) with very big leaves.  The flower heads were all different sizes – some very big (like a dinner plate) and some much smaller.  It does not appear that any of the flowers are going to produce seeds (like the ones that you can eat). My question is what to do with the plants.   Do you cut them down and they grow back next year or do you leave them all winter?

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A: There are actually some sunflowers that are perennials but the ones that we are most familiar with and very likely the ones you are describing are annuals which means that they will die at the end of the current growing season and you will have to replant them from seed next spring.

Every week, Growing Things Outdoors runs online at edmontonjournal.com or, if you prefer an epaper format, epaper.edmontonjournal.com

Learn more by emailing your questions to [email protected], reading past columns, or my book Just Ask Jerry. You can also follow me on Twitter @justaskjerry01.

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