Ailanthus anyone?

You may want to have a seat for this. I was out and about today and I see this in somebody's front yard.
At first look, I thought "how pretty". I thought, "could it be a late blooming Red Buckeye"? And then I got closer.
"Oh God", its Ailanthus. Somebody is really proud of this foreign weed tree.
What I thought might have been the flowers of a Red Buckeye was just a big Tree-of-heaven in full disgusting seed.
This tree is being planted on this street like its really valuable.
I have a few photos of it, and 2 other smaller Trees-of-Heaven" on this street.
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v243/w4i0a/ailanthusanyone/
Isn't that funny, that one Ailanthus (943 & 944) with an American flag in front of it?
Out of all those 8 photos there is only 3 trees, all Ailanthus.
945, 946, 947 and 948 are the big one. 949 and 950 is a younger one down the street from it.

Hope I have the id right!

Will

Yep, there's a lot of people down here that are proud of their Chinese Tallow trees too. They put their pretty borders and flower beds around their big giant weed trees.

Many trees that are very invasive in certain habitats or climates are also very attractive in bloom or fall color or whatever -- and very easy to grow.

Guy S.

Hey, if it turns their crank thats fine with me!
It is their yard I suppose.
By Gawd, I don't have to like it though!

I'll just imagine a big White Oak tree there instead.

Will

Having battled Ailanthus for over a decade on a large property in an inner city historical neighborhood, I think a property owner would have to be insane to willingly plant one. Suckering and seeding monsters from HELL! Cut one down, 50 sprout from the roots! And the smell, awfull. You can never completely eradicate them unless everyone does in your neighboorhood and then they always find a way back. Just thinking about it gives me the creeps!

Yup, that's Tree of Heaven or should I say Tree of Hell.

I was just down in the south side of Chicago a few days ago and I saw all kinds of goodies cropping up everywhere- Shining Sumac, Tree of Heaven, Mimosa (yes Guy, Mimosa), and Black Locust. After a while, they all started looking alike.

It looks nice. Ashish-Buckeyeish-Walnutish - and pruned to perfection!

Maybe Evilibrium could start a scud missle tree reform party and start selling Ailanthus sprouts/sprigs on Ebay! lol

conifers

we have one on the capital grounds here that has a huge diameter trunk looks like an oak from a distance, very ornamental but then you see its a paradise tree!!EEEEK! Death to ailianthus..what a pest.about as bad as telemarketers...LOL

If you all think it makes you sick to see one planted in a yard......think about how I feel having inherited one with this house. I denied what it was for a year. Surely, somebody like me, that despises invasives and loves natives, would never get stuck with a tree like that. But I did. I have one. I hate that thing. Somebody told me what to do and supplied Garlon 4. I removed the bark on a foot area and painted on the garlon 4 over a month ago. The tree looks perfect. NO signs of distress at all. Just cut it down you say? If only money grew on the thing instead of seed, then it would be a no brainer.

Terryr, I am resurrecting this thread so you can continue your discussion on the trials of growing Invassives.
I am giving your Ailanthus a very special name:

The "Horror" (actually, the phoneticly simular word spelled with a "W" would be more appropriate, but this is a family show).

Now, doesn't that make you feel better that your invasive tree is special? I knew it would. :)

That gives the Superior "Y" team another 500 points. HA!

Oh, and nice try attempting to steal my hard earned 1000 points. You don't stand a chance at getting them. Double HA!

Guy, I really think you should send me some seeds so I can grow them in my greenhouse and sell them on Ebay. Say like 10,000 or so. I will personnally name them: the Spawn of the 'Abomination'. We'll be rich in no time and you can dedicate a new water tower on your property to "the Spawn"...

Evilabizia can do the honors and cut the ribbon at the ground breaking...

Guy?

Moi, you want little old me in the ribbon cutting ceremony?

Sure, I'd be honored. I've got a special tool to cut the ribbons just so-
http://www.flameengineering.com/Weed_Dragon.html

I see that Terryr is too much of a CHICKEN to even answer this thread. Seems like she is spending all her nervous energy on an other thread eatting everything in sight. I know what you're up too. You are planning on gaining so much weight that no one will recognize you while you sneak into guy's and sit on his Mimosas. That should do it. After all, isn't that where you're hiding your chain saw?


MMMWWWAAAAAAAHAAAAAHAAAAHHAAAA

Good one, eh Guy? That has to be worth another 200 points!
These girls are so DA DA DAAAAAAA....

Mine is gone. Gone gone gone. Unless, as I was told, my naive, tree idiot (doesn't say a whole lot about me does it, since I picked the guy), doesn't come back and treat the roots. He ground the stump and went for a huge area, which I could stand in, and took all that dirt with him. Granted, I'll still have seeds that sprout, but so far I've been pulling them up very easily. Unfortunately, there's a female in the lot behind me, next to a church of all places. In case you didn't see the photo, I've attached one I took after.

Guy's got more than 10,000 seeds. Have him send you them all. Think of all the money you'd make!

BTW, I didn't steal any points, they were rightfully ours to begin with! You make the case perfectly for the X team.

I think Guy is hiding...........

Ah, typing while I'm typing, ey? I'm not hiding silly, I'm having a little fun on another thread. Yep, you got it right. All us X'ers are eating and gaining tons of weight to go sit on the trees and just snap them off at the base. That'll be worth more points than you've got to give!

Mwwwaaaahhhaaahhhaaahhhaahhhaaaa back at ya!

Here's your reward for removing that beast you had back there-

Well, you can't kill Ailanthus that easy, It's root system will sprout everywhere. Those trees truely are very aggressive, like fungus. cut off the main part and what's left just starts growing faster to fill in the place where the other part once was. Buying property with Ailanthus growing on it is like buying one with a lawn of Bishops weed or English Ivy. Lucky you.
I feel for you because I've been there.

I never made the case for you, I'm just having fun with words.You just twisted my posts to fit your cause which is getting to be way over the top. There never was any reason to attack Guy so viciously. You don't like his choice in trees, stay home next time he has an event at his house. Maybe you'll be missed.
I am loosing my ability to find humor here, so I will say goodnight.

Here's another one.....those are redbuds I found in lilac bushes back there. Obviously, the lilacs are gone also. And the one needs to be staked up. When it stops raining, we'll add onto the privacy fence and I've got plants to go in there.

Oh Equil, that is sooo not nice!!! But then again, I've got the dark chocolate M&M's....mmmmmmm........

Attack Guy viciously? Surely you jest. Guy's knows better than that. I'm sorry you're having trouble finding the humor. I'm glad Guy knows it's all in fun....just like calling Equil Evil, it's all in fun.

Its a beautiful soggy morning. Yawn.
Gosh, last night I thought we were making the third version of Buster keaton's frightening movie: "500 Brides"
I can just see Guy running uphill trying to escape hundreds of recently fattened "x" teamers while dodging paper mache' bolders the size of volks wagons.

Dumpling, I never knew that you took offense to the name: Evil. Thank you for telling me.

Terryr, removing the big specimens in your yard is the first step in "controlling" Ailanthus. You will have to be forever vigilant. Take special care to inspect around shrubs and other trees, lawns, flowerbeds, ornamental rocks and stonework, driveway cracks, sidewalks, your house foundation and gutters, house siding, etc., anywhere there is a place a seed can sprout and hold on, they will try to take hold. I have seen them growing on shingled roofs. I swear they're related to cockroaches...

Like Patrick, I'm finding it a little hard to see some of the humor also, at least on this issue. I've tried to explain here and elsewhere, albeit briefly, where I'm coming from on invasive species. Terry, I even tried to do so directly with you via e-mail. I also try to alert lurkers occasionally that we're mostly joking around, which is more than some of you Xs ever seem to do (until Terry's comment just now).

Once some of you started tossing in gratuitous pics of candy bars and such it made these threads too burdensome for my old connection. I'm no longer able to open the one on "Man facing charges" because you've loaded in up with bandwidth-frying crap. Just as well, because I think it was crossing the line over there too, and I'm too tired to fight it. Since you obviously choose not to believe whatever I say, regarding your idiot Ailanthus arborist or the dynamics of invasive biology or anything else, maybe you'll listen to Patrick instead when he tells you the same thing. Nobody who knows Ailanthus would try to remove it by grinding the stump. I'm not wasting any more time on this.

Guy S.

Say Sugah, that chase scene where he jumps off the cliff trying to avoid the hundreds of women in wedding dresses is hysterical. It's been years since I've seen that movie but I'll never forget him jumping off the cliff.

Even if she eats all the M&Ms in the world, I still probably won't be able to outrun Evil and her happy X-pirates for very long with my lame ankle. I'll have to rethink all of this and formulate a battle plan!

Guy S.

If you're rethinking your battle plan Guy, please do wait till my heel heals up. Otherwise you'd catch me pretty quick. BTW, the M&M's are reeeeeaaaaly good!

Yup, I'm damage free for the moment unlike you two.

A lame ankle??? What happened, did your wife take after you with a rolling pin and hit ya in the ankle?

Well, we all know Terry injured herself while stripping! My ankle just acts up now and then. Maybe if I can delay this event for a few days I'll be able to outrun at least some of you! Better yet, go chase Patrick -- I bet he's in top shape and would leave you all in the dust.

Guy S.

You gotta watch that movie. I think he jumps off the cliff and grabs a tree limb or something. You wouldn't need to run that fast with your bum ankle, just hobble and jump and grab for the jutting limb.

That is a very funny movie. I love the part where the guilted Brides stop to strip all the bricks from a freshly mortored wall, then start heaving them at Buster. And, all the while, they beat up every man that they encounter.
If you like Buster, try to get a copy of "The General" which is one of his very best feature films, featuring train slapstick, if you can imagine. There is a scene where he is running full out and dives under a car, coming out on the other side, immediatly returning to a running gate, without breaking a stride. Awesome.

Guy, my running days are over, bad knee, like VV. But I can sprint for short distances. My get aways these days involve a bottle of expensive Bourbon and a fast car, you know, like a Dodge caravan. :)

This message was edited Sep 13, 2006 9:36 PM

Hmmmm - - - the Ducks of South Lyin'?

I haven't seen that movie. Tell us about it.

Most Buster movies follow a basic theme: the girl of his dreams that for some reason he can't wed, wrapped around another conflict. In "500 Brides" Buster is a struggling young attorney that won't marry his beloved because he doesn't want to ruin her life being poor. Then an old lawyer appears that tells him his rich Uncle has died and he will inherit $7,000,000.00 if he is wed by his 25th (I think) Birthday, which just happens to be the very next day. He runs to tell his beloved that they can wed, but she thinks he only wants to marry her to get the money, so she turns him down and sends him away. Buster's Business parter decides to run a Front page/full page add in the paper that proclaims: "the Lucky woman who is waiting at the church the next morning will marry the man to inherit $7,000,000.00". The add includes a huge picture of Buster. The next morning Buster wakes up on a pue in the church to find 500 women (and a few men) in bridal dresses. The Pastor enters the church and tells the crowd of Women that this is all a bad joke, at which point the crowd goes mad. Recognizing Buster from the photo, they try to catch him but he manages to escape. This huge group of women proceed to chase him through the town into the country beating up all the men along the way. Finally, Buster manages to escape and runs to his sweetheart and convinces her to marry him just in the nick of time. I think he actually does the sliding under the car stunt in this movie.

Its been a long time since I've seen "the General", but as I recall the charactor in the movie know as the 'General' is actualy a train locomotive (with the name General on the front) that Buster's charactor owns. Buster's girl friend is competing for Buster's affections with this train, which he dearly loves. The movie is set during the Civil War period, and Buster's engine is commissioned for use in the war. When the Army comes and takes the General away, Buster is devastated. Fearing the General will be destroyed, Buster steals another train and sets out to reclaim his engine from the war effort. There are incredible chase scenes done with real moving trains that are truely hair raisiing. Buster performs unbelievable stunts jumping from one train to the next while they are both at full throddle and many other really dangerous stunts which he was famous for. He does not disappoint. It is truly amazing that they weren't killed making this film. If you ever get the chance to see it, by all means, go and see it.
My good friend growing up, Doug Newman, an avid film collector, actually owned a 16 MM copy of "the General" and "500 Brides", along with most of Busters other films, plus hundreds more of vintage films, and cartoons like Betty Boop, Superman, and other Max Fletcher creations. We watched those films all the time. I used to own a few myself, but nothing to rival Doug's collection. We used to mix sound tracks and put on film festivals at the churches around town. Fun. We used to start "The General with "Moon in June' from the "Third" album by the Soft machine Featuring the voice of Robert Whyatt. I saw "The General" about 20 years ago in a theatre with hokie tonk piano music. It just didn't sound right without the soundtrack that we had made.
Wow. that was a long time ago....

All Buster Keaton's great movies were silent films. He never made the cross over to talkies, and died destitute. What a tragedy to befall such genius...

Pat, Way cool post. Thanks, Ken

Your welcome, Ken. Did you ever see the cartoon "HA!HA!HA!" by Max Fletcher. In this cartoon/film, Max fletcher draws Betty Boop on a page of paper just before he leaves for the evening. Betty becomes animated and she and Max exchange "Goodnights". Then Betty jumps off the page and out of the ink bottle comes a clown (can't remember his name). They find a candy bar on the drawing desk and start to eat it. Suddenly the clown starts top complain of a tooth ache. So Betty Boop grabs the pen and draws a dentist office complete with chair and A big canister of (Nitrious Oxide (laughing gas). They both jump on to the drawing, and while Betty tries to administer the gas to the clown, she drops the mask on the floor and the laughing gas starts to leek out and everyone gets high and starts to laugh hysterically. Then the gas starts to leak off the page and all the objects in the room start to laugh uncontrollably. The window is open and the gas leaks outside and the whole world gets high and starts to laugh. Its pretty wild. Not sure how easy it would be to find but a real treasure. I love Max fletcher cartoons...
And for Guy: Quack! Quack! Quack!