IVY CAN I REGROW IT FROM STEMS

I just bought my first house. The house and yard is 100 years old. It looks like about that long ago someone was quite the gardener and i'm trying to keep whats in the yard but bring it back to it's original ...ummm....i think the word is formal garden glory. A lot of it is ivy , clinmbing ivy, the house had been neglected and i had to take tons of it up around the house and killed it in the process , my family business is a florist and i was not aware that it roots itself in along the whole vine (the nice pretty ones we get from wholesellers do not do this. However i have a tree that they tell me will die if i don't also take it off of the tree. The tree must be over a 100 feet tall and is completely covered with what i can only say looks like jarassic park era root systems of a climbing ivy plant. Part of the ivy is hanging down from a 60 foot high limb about 30 feet i would love to at least cut this portion of and turn it into a topariary plant is this possible without killing it???? thank you. first yard first time on this sight i love it!!!!

Ivy is very tough and roots quite readily. Just cut off several healthy lengths of it and put it in some water. You should have roots on it in no time. Then you can plant it however you like.

Hi BETHANNRICE boy have you taken on a full time job or what, I, like you, have been for almost 15 years trying to get a formal garden back to it's origional glory, it's hard work but you do find the most interesting thing, ours was left to nature in 1965, so you can imagine the state of it, brambles, trees from self seeding and weeds that looked like they had trunks, but if you take your time, you win in the end and discover some really nice plants, our garden was started in the 1800's so we learned a lot about why they grew this or how they managed to grow that, it has been a real learning curve and a history leason as well, we found loads of old Batteries, real old, then discovered, that was a way they added acidity to the soil for the Rhododendrons that they grew 50 odd years ago, so you will find plants that you never knew off, anyway, to your Ivy, it is one of the easiest plants to root from cuttings, all I do is cut lengths, fill a shallow tray with compost/soil, water it, lay the lengths of Ivy along the tray, make metal pins (like hair grips) or small stones even, and put these into/over the Ivy to hold it onto the soil, it prevents the Ivy from raising out of the soil, place in a shaddy area and water if required, or mist the greenery if the soil looks still damp, you should get rooted bits within about a month to 6 weeks, when enough root has formed, cut the length into smaller bits and into pots, keep in the shade till they are larger and you are happy the cuttings have settled well. good luck and happy plant hunting, by the way, other than known weeds you would be better waiting for a full year to see what pops up in your new/old garden as you may find lots more plants that are still underground. WeeNel.

LOL WeeNell--now I know why you are such an expert on so many things related to gardening. Bet your garden is absolutely beautiful. Maybe sometime you could share some pictures of it with us.

Hi Nature Lover, thank you, but I have been gardening since I was a child, did'nt know I had learned anything at that time, but it all comes back to you, I feel as if I have had my hands in the soil more than in the kitchen sink, as regards to my latest garden that I am still in the prosses of trying to get back to it's former glory, you have to think along the lines of how they gardened 100 years ago, why did they do this or that and why did they plant a tree there, it really is interesting, a garden history leason and I have managed to rake up some old photographs of the garden and grounds as far back as 1923, I now know what the layout was, some of the plants and even some of the garden staff, so I have loved every min of it, we dont have staff, Sniff, Sniff sniff!!!!! so it's slow progess, but I am getting there, me send pics to you, I will, when I can get my husband to help me, I can garden and grow stuff till my hearts content, but technical stuff just goes in one ear and out the other, even my Grandkids tell my I am a tech freek, Happy gardening and keep up the learning, it gets into your blood. WeeNel.

I've been gardening since I was a kid too and I just love it. Started out "helping" my dad in his veggie garden. My own two kids both like to garden. I always let them have a little corner of my garden to plant their own stuff in. Started them out with easy-to-grow things and let them graduate up as they wanted. Just before we retired, hubby and I bought 11 1/2 acres and kept 5 1/2 as yard (other 5 left in woods for deer and other critters). I have enjoyed every minute of landscaping it . And I had to totally landscape since the guy we hired to do our bull dozer work took out EVERY tree we had even though we told him all the ones marked with large bright orange ribbons were to stay. It's a good thing I do love to garden, LOL! And don't worry about those pictures (though I really would love to see your garden). I haven't figured it out yet either. My son is a computer whiz and says he will help me figure it out next time he comes up from the coast (hopefully next weekend for Father's Day if they will let him have a little time off from work).

Naturelover, you must have hired the same guy that chainsawed all my lovely Rhododendrond and Camilias, thought I could get on with my bit and leave him to it as he said he knew all there was to know about tending to shrubs and overgrown things, but leason learned, it's a true saying, if you want a good job done, do it yourself, then no one else to blame, lickily, some of the Rhod'i did come back, but take years for the Camilias to get going, I live in hope, just keep planting more, as with you, our grounds are huge, so when you spend hundreds on plants, you dont really notice them for years, my prob with the deer is, they are tiny ROE deer, cute as a button, but boy, can they ever strip a bush in a day, we have the little Bambie's romping and tumbling about right now, and I swear mother is telling them, "when she aint looking go get her prized shrubs" they come look in the window some early evenings, dont know who gets the biggest fright, them or me, but hey, you just get used to dealing with the wild life and learn new ways to out fox them. I have a bluebell wood that flowers in May and it is a wonderful sight, the deer dont seem to like the bluebels, I was told to grow anything that had thorns on, they loved the roses, all the wild brambles etc, so I just go with the flow, if you cant beat nature, join it, just try to keep a patch all to yourself. Happy gardening Naturelover and take care. WeeNel

ROFLMBO! I bet that does give you quite a fright having a deer sneak up for a peek into your window at night! Whoever said to plant things with thorns doesn't know deer very well. As you said, they will happily eat your roses, blackberries, etc.--thorns don't bother them at all. Heck, out west, they even eat certain types of cactus plants. The only things I know that I've haven't seen them eat at all (yet) is the aromatic type plants. The will eat most evergreen trees but they never bother my blue cedar or blue Leland cypress. Both have a strong citrus smell which apparently is offensive to them (and good for me since that's two trees I don't have to keep fenced). I have fences around all other trees until I can get them big enough that they can't reach them anymore. And on our bull dozer guy--we found out AFTER he finished our job that he is a well known crook around these parts. We should have asked around first. We hired him because he offered the best price. We didn't know the price tag included him stealing all our huge oak trees so he could sell the timber! Then to add insult to injury, he buried all the stumps in our front yard. We will have to wait until it all rots enough to finish caving in so we can have dirt hauled in to fill in all the huge holes and ruts that have formed as a result. I know you are just sick about those camelas. I have two and I just love them. One is in recovery from the deer having eaten every leaf off of it this last winter. So far this summer they have stripped one crape myrtle tree and two Indian hawthorn shrubs. Back to building cages for more of our trees, lol. Good luck with your garden restoration job (and what a job it must be!).

Naturelover, Heres what I was told would also deter the dear, hang old CD's on a string from your trees and wind/sun will deter them, NO, mine had a party, OR, get the local drinkers to call AFTER a night on the beer, Peeeeeee all over the garden, the deer will not come back, Yeh right, they sniffed, they looked at my window in digust, then carried on munching the plants, this was after a big Barbi and sent all the guys out into the woodland for that watering hole, then Hooter/horn blower, great I thought, the grandkids have one of those things, so sat by the window, hooter in hand, no deer, fell asleep and woke up 3:30am heard the deer barking in the distance, but could hardly keep my eyes open, so went to bed, who cares if they eat my plants I thought, they did, husband chased them in the morning from my front border, munching at my Iris flowers, the lastest thing was, Lion/big cat poo/droppings, so, told husband and he thought I had lost my marbles and was'nt prepared to drive 200 miles to our nearest zoo to ask another grown man for some lion poo, so cant tell you if it works, but I would sure like to find out, saga goes on, plants get shreaded and I enjoy seeing them, WITH THEIR MOUTHS CLOSED, the bucks are even worse as they just strip the bark off everything when they have their antlers, Oh well, we did want to live in the countryside and not the city. Hope your garden is doing fine, our baby deer are so cute right now, just all legs and no fear. Good luck and happy gardening. WeeNel.

Well if you can't get the big cat poo, try going online and see if you can order some coyote or wolf urine. They are natural preditors (wolf more so than coyote) and could work, at least for a while. A lot of types of varmit urine are sold for hunting purposes. I've never used either of these but I do know some others who have used fox urine as a cover scent on their boots to walk in to their hunting stand. They used too much and sat in their stand and heard deer snorting when the hit the scent trail. Needless to say, they didn't get to shoot any deer on that particular day. We love to watch our deer here, especially when they bring their fawns into our food plot down by the creek, but gosh they can be a pest with our beautiful plants!

Got fox and the cubs are about right now, deer still play hide and seek, not from the fox but from me, honest Naturelover, I think you just have to accept they are around and work to try deter them rather than against them, other than kill, then we wont win, I dont allow shooting or trapping, nature has a way of fixing it's self out, I dislike culls as it is usually for pleasure rather than need, but I guess I feel like a lone voise at times, Good luck and happy gardening. WeeNel.