Welcome
Elms
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Useful
David
7th December 1963 to 29th March 2020
Father Teacher Friend
David created this site for the reasons he set out so cogently below. The site is maintained in his memory as an informative and now elegiac contribution to both the history and the future of the Elm. Some sections have been removed and some brief updates have been added where appropriate. But that which remains is a deeply informative and moving resource for all.
In addition to the acknowledgements and thanks offered by David there are others, from within the elm community, whose help and support since his death has been invaluable. There are too many to list and too much risk of missing someone out; but they know who they are.
As a family we are so grateful for the support and continuing friendship of Fergus Poncia; David’s oldest and dearest friend. They shared over a period of some forty five years, the horrors and joys of school days, then continental bicycle tours and, always, David’s lifelong engagement with a future resistant elm and so to the early experimental planting in Kent.
The Family (November 2022)
Welcome to Resistant Elms
Even though elm disease is here to stay, elms can still be planted and should grow healthily to maturity.
It all depends on making the right choice of elm.
As a result of specialised breeding programmes, there are now several new hybrid elms which will shrug off the disease. Most of them have only recently reached Britain. To date, information about them has been sketchy, and they have been difficult or impossible to buy. This site is dedicated to them.
If you would like to learn more about elm disease and the breeding of resistant trees, visit FAQs and the pages on Assessing Elm Clones.
If you would simply like to find out what the magnificent English elms looked like before their destruction (or renew acquaintance with them), visit the “Immemorial Elm” section, which uses photographs, art and language to try to summon the ghost of this most loved of trees.
For up to date information on disease resistant elm cultivars and where to buy please contact:
https://disease-resistant-elms.org/
For background information on the Wingham elm:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulmus_%27Wingham%27
https://wingham-pc.gov.uk/news/the-wingham-elm-comes-to-wingham/
For developments in Butterfly Conservation and therefore the re establishment of elm please see: