ROGER EVANS

There's a sort of aloofness of majesty to a big cedar. It is often growing among other trees but always seems to stand out

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'VE got two favourite trees. Truth be told I like all trees but these two are a bit special. Firstly, there is the weeping willow. I've tried two or three times to grow one. They have lived OK for two or three years and then they have succumbed to a sort of blight.

I ask a friend who has some beauties, and he said that for five or so years he would spray them with an old fashioned copper spray to prevent blight. He is more of a perfectionist than me, I just used to put them in the ground and expect them to grow.

My son-in-law had a beauty but it used to grow so big it blocked his entrance. Every two or three years he used to take the chainsaw to it. I used to think "he's cut it too hard this time, it'll never recover," but it always did. One of the named storms of last winter fetched it down so he had to tidy it up with the chainsaw. All that was left was a bit of stump, I thought it would recover but it never did.

The other tree I like is the cedar. There's a sort of aloofness of majesty to a big cedar. It is often growing amongst other trees but always seems to stand out. There's a cedar in our garden. It isn't very pretty, about 20 years ago two-thirds of it came down in a storm.