They cut my gorgeous cherry tree down

[babyno5]

I know it’s not important in the grand scheme of things.
I had a garden maintenance business is to give me a quote to cut down couple of conifers, pull up some bushes and bring my hedge down to a manageable height.
I’ve come home from work to find they’ve also cut down my gorgeous 30 foot cherry tree. I’m so upset! We have zero privacy upstairs now and I hate how it looks.
I was really clear on what I wanted them to do. I text him and all I got was “sorry I misunderstood you”
Suggestions please to make a horrible hedge look better!
Aibu to be close to tears? (Be gentle with me-shit day at work dealing with idiots!!)

I know it's upsetting, but unless you think it was done maliciously then was some misunderstanding, ignorance or neglect on their part.
And you may get some (small) compensation .the cost of a new tree.

Over the years I have learned to stay at home when having such work done.
Having someone in to do such stuff and going to work was never going to have a good ending.
In my experience trades people ask a lot of questions- micro decisions and if you are not there to make them then they will decide on your behalf and the outcome may not always be satisfactory.
And if you are at home you can keep a check on what they are doing.

Glad he's planting a replacement. it sounds as if it was a genuine - albeit catastrophic - mistake and he's trying to make amends. Hope you get a new tree that you grow to love just as much.

I cried when dh cut some lovely ivy down. I'd have been in floods for a cherry tree.

Hi babyNo5, (Sorry don't know your real name)

I use a fully insured arboriculturist to do my gardening. If he did something like that, he'd replace it. It depends upon the type of business. If it was cheap and cheerful man with van type, or professional trusted trader type. You may be surprised and they'll have insurance. The other thing that springs to mind is that there's no way in hell anyone would be tackling anything in my garden unsupervised.

Depending on where you live it may have a TPO (tree protection order) on it - worth a call to the council who will take him to court.

This would have broken my heart too, I hate seeing trees cut down, we have just lost two sweet chestnuts to honey fungus and I get upset looking at the stumps!

You have proof that the tree was NOT included - insist that they replace it with a specimen tree (larger and with more years of growth than a standard purchase) or there will be court action. It is absolute sacrilege to cut down trees and when people do this for reasons like 'the blossom is untidy' it makes me want to weep. A gardener once practically ruined a magnolia that was in my garden - it was so beautiful that people would stop to gaze at it and in the late afternoon sunshine it seemed to 'shimmer'. I kid you not, I wanted to stab him with his pruning shears when I saw it. Luckily it grew back, just as lovely, but it took almost three years. It took me almost three years to stop swearing and raving.

Sue the bastard. Judge Rinder would love this, chopping a cherry. Go for it. You can get some revenge - it won't completely ease how bad you feel but it will help.

Would be devastated if that happened to me. Tell him he has to plant something appropriate and that you approve of. Not sure if a 30' tree would settle and grow. Eucalyptus grows fast and is evergreen. Feel your pain.

This was very nearly us a couple of years ago.

A friend of a friend was a landscape gardener. (Or odd job man.) He was supposed to dig up some saplings that had shot all over the garden, extend the gravel driveway and generally tidy up the flower beds.

He left all the roots of the saplings, so Dh had to go round with a pick axe and dig them up anyway. He dumped a load of ‘topsoil’ on our flowerbeds which was basically stones and crap. He cut down a beautiful ornamental cherry tree which he had been told to leave alone. Our driveway is like walking on a bloody beach because he didn’t lay it properly. But that wasn’t the worst of it.

I happened to take him out a cup of coffee and he had already cut two low boughs off one of our stunning, mature cherry trees. We have three, across our front garden, all different colours and about twenty five feet high. We’ve had other people from our village wander up our lane and take pictures of them. And there he was, trying to cut them down.

I actually shrieked. I was trying to be polite but I was thinking Jesus, how thick do you have to be to think anyone would want those cutting down! His defence was that he usually taped off anything to be left but he’d forgotten his tape.

I’ve never had him back since.

Sounds like you have had good advice and they will replace (sadly this is best to be autumn now) but make sure they remove the stump and roots as this is very expensive to get done! I would be very upset :( hope the G&T helps

I love cherry trees. This thread really makes me want to get one!
A few years ago our NDN had a magnificent monkey puzzle tree in their front garden. I admired it for years before we even moved here, and many people commented 'oh you live by the monkey puzzle tree' - it was a bit of a landmark round here.
Happened to go away for a weekend and when I got back they'd chopped it down!!! Not even a stump left now. Still feel really sad about it and haven't forgiven them yet!

I would be so upset if someone cut down my beautiful cherry tree, I literally wait all year for it to flower, it’s beautiful.

I would be really upset, I completely understand.

All may not be lost. A gardener did this to me late last year. He left the stump and I hadn’t yet got around to getting it dug up when low and behold the tough old tree started springing up again from the stump this spring! It will take ages to fully grow back but is growing with a vengeance. There are so many branches sticking out of the stump and it’s growing so fast. It just didn’t want to die and must have a tough root system. I almost cried when I noticed it had started regrowing.

MsAdorabelleDearheartVonLipwig omg this guy was a friend of a friend!! Maybe we have a mutual friend!
He came back today to finish off the back garden (thankfully doing exactly as he’d been told) and said he will be in touch in the autumn (my request he was happy to plant one now!!). He said he will take payment then once I’m satisfied with the replacement Cherry tree.
My family think I’m bonkers because I was trawling through all the photos on my phone looking for ones of my beloved tree!
I’m truly heartened by the empathy you lovely lot have shown and my 5 mins of fame-made it to the mumsnet daily e mail 😂😂

Unfinishedkitchen I don’t want the stump dug up now after reading that!
Maybe there is hope 😀

I know nothing about gardens but can someone clarify for me - do cherry blossom trees grow actual cherry fruit? As it seems some people are referring to cherry blossom trees but the OP mentioned cherries - or are cherries the name of the blossom , my neighbour has a beautiful cherry blossom I can see from my house but I can't see any cherries on - having a feeling I'm being pretty stupid

emelsie you do get ornamental cherry trees but mine was a fruit bearing one-and bloody gorgeous jam I made with it too sob sob!

Mine has fruit but the birds always get to it before I do.

Post a picture of the tree and the stump to facebook
tag his business name against it
do the same on linkedin
do the same on twitter
make darned sure he never EVER does anything similar again
how much will HE OWE YOU once the tree is replaced
get some of that money NOW so that he does not leave you in the lurch
)))))))))))) tree vandals ((((((((((((

💐💐💐💐💐💐💐

The problem with cherry is it will shoot away from the stump like crazy and you'll have a forest of cherry saplings bursting from every exposed bit of root. The root needs to be properly ground out by a tree surgeon which will cost a few hundred pounds. Then obviously he owes you a new tree!

That's awful! I would be very upset. Some of the people that do garden work are so slap dash, either they don't listen justo what you want or they do their own thing anyway

Dear god! Awful!

Can I please make a plea to everyone to avoid this kind of work at all when birds are nesting?

What troubled said . Go in tough and hard

He didn’t fucking listen

Get a replacement

If I am so sorry I 😍 my cherry tree x