Dibbinsdale

In September 2020 to celebrate 30 years of Tree Wardens,

The Tree Council awarded 30 Dutch Elm disease resistant trees to groups who applied.

This is one of those commemorative elms which was applied for by Wirral Tree Wardens. 

In January 2021 South Wirral Rangers & Dibbinsdale Volunteers planted this new variant elm tree.

https://w3w.co/mull.posed.deep 

53.336096, -2.993696 

 The elm trees planted near here on the old Spital Tip site in the 1980’s have slowly succumbed to the Dutch Elm virus disease and died. They have been replaced by new trees of different varieties. These seem to have established well on land adjacent to the railway line.

Thanks to an inspired suggestion from Tree Wardens in Broadland, Norfolk, The Tree Council is delighted to be giving away one commemorative disease-resistant elm to the first 30 Tree Warden networks to apply. Ulmus ‘New Horizon’ along with other resistant varieties have shown that they can withstands many challenges include – floods, sub-zero temperatures, inner city pollution, poor soils, central reservations and salt-laden coastal roadsides! Unlike other new cultivars that have succumbed to Dutch Elm Disease, New Horizon is not affected and is great for wildlife too. As The Tree Council was originally set up to help recover from the devastating impacts of the disease, it seems very fitting to mark 30 years of our volunteers’ efforts by planting trees that will thrive over the next 30 years (and for longer of course!). 

Ulmus 'New Horizon'  protected under EU breeders' rights (EU council decision 2100/94)

There are other selected trees & crosses that are not susceptible to Dutch Elm Disease.

(The Breeders right's as I understand it, mean that you should not propagate  from this tree.)

This exciting elm shares the same phenology as the native elm and as such is a host to the extremely rare White-letter Hairstreak Butterfly (WLH). The WLH butterfly is native to the UK and an endangered species as DED all but decimated their natural habitat. The Butterfly Conservation organisation has been monitoring the population growth on a stand of Ulmus New Horizon growing in Vauxhall Spring Gardens, London.

The particular qualities of interest are: Dutch Elm Disease (DED ) free; native wildlife habitat including the rare White-letter Hairstreak butterfly; fully hardy in extreme cold; drought resistance; tolerant of periodical waterlogging; mid green leaf colour; yellow autumn colour; thrives in coastal conditions and poor soils.

The above characteristics have seen it successfully planted in: Sustainable Drainage Schemes (SUDS); car parks; central reservations on the highway; harsh urban developments; coastal plantings including as pleached screening; rural avenues and as a specimen tree.

An American hybrid cultivar raised by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF), from a crossing of the Japanese Elm clone W43-8 = 'Reseda' (female parent) with Siberian Elm clone W426 grown from seed collected from a street tree at Yankton, South Dakota.

Tested in the US National Elm Trial coordinated by Colorado State University, 'New Horizon' averaged a survival rate of 74% after 10 years.[2]'New Horizon' was patented in the US in 1994, while in Europe, it is marketed as one of the 'Resista' elms  protected under EU breeders' rights (EU council decision 2100/94).

Description

Unlike its elder stablemate 'Sapporo Autumn Gold', 'New Horizon' initially has a compact, pyramidal form, with comparatively dense foliage comprising glabrous, dark-green, elliptical leaves < 12 cm long by 7 cm broad, occasionally without the asymmetric bases typical of the genus.[3] The perfect, apetalous wind-pollinated flowers appear in March, followed by the seeds in April; flowering, and consequent fruiting, is sparse, in common with its female parent Japanese Elm, and usually begins when the tree is aged 8 years.[4][5]

The tree's growth habit is unusual; in an assessment at U C Davis as part of the National Elm Trial, its stem diameter increased faster than any other of the 15 cultivars, but increase in height, averaging 0.9 m per annum, made it one of the slowest growing, vertically.

In commerce in the US, the tree is occasionally propagated by grafting onto an Ulmus pumila rootstock, rather than simply rooting cuttings as normally practiced in North America and Europe.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulmus_%27New_Horizon%27

ELM, ENGLISH  (Ulmus procera)

https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/trees-woods-and-wildlife/british-trees/a-z-of-british-trees/english-elm/