Help/Advice Sought For a Very Special (to me) Horse Chestnut Tree
My legend of a grandfather was a passionate amateur botanist, gardener and wildflower photographer, and was in his absolute element anytime anything with leaves, roots, flowers or muck was involved.
About 20 years ago, as a child, I planted a conker I picked up on a walk with him at his house. It has lived there ever since. We lost him in 2015 and I miss him terribly. This tree is one of the best connections I have to him and it has lived at his house since we planted it. My grandmother is now too elderly and frail to tend to the garden/patio at all, and yesterday I ‘rescued’ this tree and brought it to my house with her blessing.
I’m worried that it’s in bad shape in this small plastic pot. It’s at least 20 years old and for the first time it flowered this year, but I can’t imagine the root structure is healthy at all being squeezed into something so small, so a few questions:
Is it already doomed? I know some plants/trees rely a lot on a long ‘tap root’ or a generally very large root system, which obviously this tree has been denied.
Do horse chestnuts respond badly to re-potting? I have heard that some plants really hate their roots to be disturbed.
Why is it still so green? It’s the end of October and all the horse chestnuts (in the ground) in my area are now almost completely barren of even brown leaves.
If I keep it alive I assume it will eventually become too big for any pot and will need to be in the ground. I don’t have any land in which to plant it. What might my options be in terms of the kind of place I might be able to put it in the ground? Thinking perhaps offer it to parks/national trust sites etc?
Any advice appreciated. I have a knack of killing most of my own plants but I really want this one to fare better.
submitted by /u/algfirth
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