Moving a 10ft monkey puzzle tree

[peardroplets]

We have just moved into a new house and there is a spiky beast of a monkey puzzle tree in the garden. I really hate it and want to replace it with a more friendly tree e.g. a flowering cherry but it seems a shame to chop it down especially if someone out there might want on freegle or eBay. But I'm guessing it has massive roots and probably wouldn't survive a move if I gave it away. Does anyone have any knowledge about moving them at this size?

[echt]

How tall is it?

[echt]

Sorry. Didn't read title.

Google moving monkey puzzle trees and you'll find it's hard and expensive.

[PotteringAlong]

At 10foot I think it's probably too big to move. I'd just cut it down.

[AnyTheWiser]

No!!! I love monkey puzzles.
They don't like being moved though.

[Qwebec]

How can a tree called monkey puzzle not be friendly?
No help, sadly they don't grow where I live.

[funnyperson]

Monkey Puzzle trees are one of my favourite trees and I wish I had a garden large enough to grow one. A ten foot tree is quite an old tree. Please don't cut it down. Plant hundreds of snowdrops for the spring and lots of pale coloured bearded irises under it (the irises love the slight change in soil ph that the needles create) and maybe you will grow to love its shape too.

[AnyTheWiser]

Just out of interest, how big a garden would one need to grow a monkey puzzle?

[shovetheholly]

When I was a kid, I wanted nothing more than a monkey puzzle tree!! They are one of those plants that just seemed absolutely magical. People just love them - in fact, someone is trying to map them all:

monkeypuzzletrees.wordpress.com/

They're also under threat in their native habitat, so they are increasingly precious.

Your tree is old to be 10 ft tall. I know the leaves are spiny, and I also appreciate that not all of them have been planted in the right place. But if you can hang on to it and work around it, they are the kind of plant that whole neighbourhoods grow to love.

[peardroplets]

Feel really guilty now! But I really really don't like monkey puzzles. This particular one is planted about 10 ft away from our house in a front garden. It is just going to get too big there. We use our front as a family garden as it gets afternoon sun and I get really nervous every time my one year old goes near its dagger-like branches. And I have never seen a bird in it despite our garden being generally very wildlife friendly. Sorry monkey puzzle lovers!

[funnyperson]

I think a garden needs to be at least 3m in diameter for the tree and then some for the rest of the garden
They used to be very rare in the UK and are an endangered species apparently.
In S America parakeets live in them. That you have observed no birds like them here is interesting: I often wonder about that sort of thing when we plant flowers and trees from other continents without the accompanying ecosystem of flora and fauna to go with. It seems a shame to have a birdless tree.

Anyway here is another article on them from the Guardian

www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/gardening-blog/2015/may/07/monkey-puzzles-araucaria

This firm might help you
www.hazelwoodtrees.co.uk/case-studies/mature-tree-moving/

[peardroplets]

"Potentially 40 metres tall" the article says...errr that's at least 4 times the height of our house! We live in a three bed semi so it is totally out of place. Thanks for the info funnyperson

I think the tree is just too spiky for birds as there is no nice foliage for them to hide in just jagged bare branches.

[Qwebec]

Potentially 40 meters is to be taken with a grain of salt. That generally means in perfect conditions and at the end of his life. And if 10 ft mean it is pretty old it is slow growing. Not the best help, where I live trees are protected, it is actually a crime to kill a tree that is not fataly ill on most plots, dodgy people burry the base to kill then discretly . So I feel pretty strongly about this.

[NanTheWiser]

These trees really aren't suitable for gardens having the potential to grow very large, and they can be dangerous due to dead branches falling suddenly, which could be a hazard with children around.

[Ineverpromisedyouarosegarden]

Get it valued by the local garden centre. They are worth more than you would think.

[MummyNessi]

Did you ever managed to dig the tree out?
We are just about to move in to a house where the whole back garden is taken up buy a monkey puzzle tree... a huge one... at least 12f. I also feel bad about chopping it up and would happily give it away but not sure it's possible.

[viques]

Thet do grow huge, and are very unfriendly. We were out walking in Herefordshire last year, near Offas Dyke and suddenly came upon a group of monkey puzzles that some eccentric gardener had planted on a whim last century. They were enormous and very unexpected. Lovely group of wild ponies resting near them too.

They used to be popular trees in London for some reason, you still sometimes see one incongruously growing in a London terrace front area. I love them , as long as they are someone else's responsibility.

[MummyNessi]

I love trees and nature and it is a beautiful tree, but it's sharp and prickly and enormous and it will only get bigger... you really need space for a tree like this. It really doesn't work in a smallish family garden...:( it really never should have been planted where it is..

[MummyNessi]

:

[Jude97]

This is an old thread but I had to give my two penneth wortth. To make the tree more child friendly cut the lower branches off near the trunk to raise the canopy. Plant the bulbs underneath as others have suggested. Birds may not like it but ours houses thousands of lady birds and other beasties. Great for wildlife.