Struggling Rowan tree

Hi everyone,

I'm new to gardening and moved into a new house 14 months ago. We have a Rowan tree in the front garden that doesn't seem to be doing well. I'm unsure on the age, I'd estimate it is around 5m High. It has very few leaves, few berries (yellow) that seem to be turnung brown and dying and the bark seems to be pale, almost ashy, with white spots on it (lichen? mould?). I've had a read through the forums trying to find someone with similar issues with their Rowan but so far nothing seems to match.

The garden is N/NE facing, NW England and gets early morning and evening sun. The tree is planted close to the pavement, on a quiet street that doesn't get much traffic.

The soil is clay but drains relatively well. There are other Rowan trees on the street that are thriving.

There doesn't seem to be any wounds or weeping on the tree that is obvious. One of the smaller branches was damaged by a skip lorry a few months ago but the tree wasn't doing particularly well when we moved in so I'm not attributing too much to this. The tree hasn't been pruned that I'm aware of.

I've attached a few pictures of our tree. We keep getting visits by local gardening firms asking if we would like it cutting down, but I'd rather save it if we can.

Any advice you can provide would be appreciated

Thanks

Josh

 

It does appear to be dying.
That picture of the trunk suggests a large dead patch of wood with possibly living wood on right hand side. That also shows the picture of the whole tree with dead wood in the middle and just a few leaves to the right.

If others in the area are not suffering from drought and appear to be ok then I think yours is probably on the way out.

 

Agree with Pete; looks as if it would be best removed. In my experience they tend to be relatively shortlived; Yours looks about the same size as mine that went into a terminal decline and died about 5 years ago.
Whats under the chippings and when were they put there?

 

Thanks for the response. That's a shame. There's a weed membrane then soil under the chippings. I'm unsure when they were put down.

Any recommendations on a tree that would fair better in the location, ideally something that will produce edible fruit?

 

Wouldn't like to suggest a replacement atm but what I will say is first you would need to remove that one including the roots.
The roots might be rotted or they might not so could be relatively easy, or not so easy.

 

If the berries are not the usual red, then it might suggest it is/was a cultivar - Joseph Rock. Mine died for no apparent reason and I read somewhere it was prone to fireblight.