Are these trees goners?

Question

Is there anyway to make these trees look better without taking them down and replanting new ones? It looks like the previous owner butchered them to no return and they’re really ugly. No idea on the type of tree.

Answer 1

Yeah, I'd get them removed. However, they are oleander trees(Nerium oleander), which are well-known for being lethally toxic. I would strongly recommend hiring an arborist to get them out, but if that's not possible here are some rules for dealing with nasties like this:

• Wear long clothing that covers your arms and legs, closed footwear, a face mask and eye protection - oleander sap can cause skin rashes.

• Use handsaws to cut the trees down - Chainsaws and other power tools will spray fine sawdust into the air, which may be hazardous to those nearby.

• Keep young children and pets out of the yard while you work for their own safety.

And once you've sawn the trees into manageable pieces, please, for the love of God DON'T BURN IT!!! Inhaling oleander smoke can very easily be lethal, so instead dispose of it via your local dump if they accept greenwaste.

Answer 2

Ugliness is in the eye of the beholder. Instead, you could say they've got character and make an unusual garden feature. They've been hacked about a bit, but have nice leafy crowns. If they are oleanders, they can be cut back hard (you can see the young shoots on the trunk). So another option would be to cut them back to more or less ground level. Take a look at the RHS website here. Note, they are described as "Potentially harmful", but so are many other garden plants.

Answer 3

They probably need to be replaced.

Those trees have a lot of cuts/wounds. Tree wounds never disappear (they typically heal over and the tree will continue to grow in other places.

Further, the outer layers of the tree just beneath the bark is where all the growth occurs - the inner part of the tree is structure but otherwise dead - and those layers are damaged.

It is not impossible that someone suitably skilled could cut the trees below the damage and graft parts of the upper part of the tree into the cambrium - but I am not sure that this is a practical option. It will also still look damaged at that point because the graft(s) would only be on a small section, so the rest of the cut would remain there.