Lol. Nicely written.

I can relate.

That wouldn't have bothered me at all. Strangely (probably to some) I always feel guilty when I toss out little baby (seedling) trees and plants. I often plant lots more than I need to ensure I have enough, but then have to get rid of extras. I hate throwing the cute little things away.

Well, at least I'm not a seedling murderer! Lol.

I watched Hobart College, here in town, take chain saws and destroy about 12 flowering cherry near the entrance to campus. They were immediately replaced with the same tree but younger. The ones they destroyed were about 5 years old :( The noise of multiple chain saws and the sight of the trees falling made me sick.

Edited to add...not that your situation was the same :)

I once cut down a large maple that shadowed a pear tree behind it, that made me sad. But I cut down conifers all day long without regret, lol

When we bought and moved into this home, we removed a Bradford pear and a sickly red maple from our front yard......knowing that the next-door-neighbor had given the trees to the previous owner. Yikes! We did feel a bit guilty about getting rid of them, but didn't hesitate for a second.

We were also going to remove a sickly redbud in the back, but decided to go ahead and 'fix' it. We've enjoyed that tree for many years and are happy with our decision. The neighbors gave the previous owner that tree, too.

In some ways the Cleveland pear, has gotten a lot of bad press. Yes they can be weak, but the beauty of the trees more than makes of for the deficiencies. People complain about the smell, but I have found that unless you put your face into the blooms, the smell is not noticeable. You can not beat the effect of a dozen pears, in bloom in the spring.

Even if they break in a storm, they usually loose only on limb. If they have to be taken out, one person with a chain saw as small as and electric can quickly remove it.

annz3 chainsaw noise is horrible!

My tree sensitivity must run in the family because my daughter cried a couple weeks ago when we realized her magnolia tree died over winter. It was in the ground for 4 years (we planted it when she was born) and doing well. Anyways, when I was taking it out, I turned back and looked at the house and she was crying so hard through the window. I felt really horrible. 15 minutes later, we were up at the nursery getting another one to replace it. This time, she got to pick it out AND help plant it. It's much smaller than the one that died but I think she's warming up to it.

I got a prunus x cistena for birthday present but I'm not very much into trees with red leaves. But a gift is a gift and I planted it in a too good spot for a tree of that color. Now, one year later, I see green sprouts emerging from the trunk. I don't know what kind of prunus it is but when those sprouts grow bigger I will cut the cistena part off with no feeling of guilt and now I think it was a very nice present.

rhizo_1 your neighbors were probably watching through their window and muttering to themselves as you cut those down! Lol.

"Those trees were a gift for Jim and Nancy and I don't think they would've been very happy about this." Meanwhile, Jim and Nancy probably moved in the first place to avoid the awkwardness of removing the gifted-trees themselves :)

In cold bark! That was clever.:))) No guilt, you're being proactive. I've slowly removed the Norway maples on my lot and feel relief, not guilt, as each one came down.

No guilt. Regret, maybe, because it's a lot of work. I still split it with a maul, but I'm looking around for a log splitter. At 71, it's about time. Maybe next year.
Mike

You did the right thing. And you live and learn. If you feel bad you can give a donation to an organization that promotes healthy yards and discourages garden centers from selling the wrong nursery stock for the area. (I think you were had when you bought the tree.)

Yes, you should be happy you got rid of an invasive menace and replaced with a better tree. Bravo!

+oM

Is this where the term "Ax Murderer" comes from? You did a service to your community.

tj

The biggest fear I have reguarding trees is that when I sell my home the next homeowner is going to come and cut the trees I planted.....some people just don't understand trees....I see it all the time around me.....

Lol viper114, isn't that the truth? I see it all the time too. Instead of sawing down ornamental pears, they're sawing down maples. It should be a crime in Michigan. Alas, to each their own I guess.

My wife doesn't get my obsession with trees either. She laughs at me when I sit in our backyard and just talk about the landscaping. In my opinion, trees make a house feel like home.

Unfortunately your neighbors pears were likely bradfords not clevelands. But its ok, I'm not a fan of pear trees anyways.

swicky88, yes, they were Bradfords.

Ugh, that is also a fear of mine Viper! I'm hoping we will be able to stay in our house until we are super old though. Matt, I hear you on feeling bad. After a bad ice storm followed 2 days later by a very heavy wet snow, all the white pines in our area experienced a ton of damage. As a result, I decided to cut down our 10', very healthy pine. I also had to cut down our giant sequoia last year, which I felt very bad about. This was due to a manageable fungus, albeit with a lot of work to maintain annually. It still sucked.

When I was a little kid (9), my Dad cut down a maple tree he had planted for me a few years prior. I cried miserably about it. He was getting curbing put in around our house and didn't want the roots to affect the curb. It was pretty terrible.

sequoiadendron_4 I think some people are a little more connected to nature than others. It's definitely not a bad quality to have.

I was 14 when my dad told me to cut a tree 3 inches in, and pour poison on it. At that time I felt completely normal, because we needed the tree to die regarding fire hazard warning across the country. (I used to live in Australia at the time.) Just before I started cutting, I saw the most beautiful cookaburra sleeping on one of the branches. And, I thought to myself, here is this beautiful bird resting on a tree that I am about to poison. In the end, I couldn’t do it. I cut and poisoned another tree. When my dad found out it wasn’t dead, I promptly lied to his face and said, “oh. I thought you meant this tree...” I thought I was the only one who couldn’t bear the fact of getting rid of trees. I remember telling my dad the truth many years later, with him saying, “that’s exactly how I felt when I was your age.”

Other than pests, I don't like killing anything, trees included. BUT, in order to make way for my house and large yard, I've needed to remove (kind term for kill) maybe 800 or more poplar trees ... mind you, poplar are NOT exactly the most desirable of species! Today, I'm bucking up four large black poplar from along my driveway, the buggers have made a real mess of the asphalt by pushing their vigorous suckers up through it, gggrrr .... so, down the trees come and I've also been applying chemical to the suckers.