A few weeks ago something I have been wishing and hoping for for years came to pass: my elderly neighbour removed her tree. Now ordinarily I am a great lover of trees, especially appreciative of native species, and will grieve their loss, but this bottle brush was well and truly beyond control in my neighbours courtyard, smothered in noxious potato vine and jasmine, filling gutters with its needly leaves, its roots creating ridges in my paving and heading under my house. But the worst of it was that it blocked completely the low morning sun from my lighting and warming my living room all winter.