Cicely Mary Barker's Elm Tree Flower Fairy

Soft and brown in Winter-time,
Dark and green in Summer's prime,
All their leaves a yellow haze
In the pleasant Autumn days-
See the lines of Elm trees stand
Keeping watch through all the land
Over lanes, and crops, and cows,
And the fields where Dobbin ploughs.
All day long, with listening ears,
Sits the Elm-tree Elf, and hears
Distant bell, and bleat, and bark,
Whistling boy, and singing lark.
Often on the topmost boughs
Many a rook has built a house;
Evening comes; and overhead,
Cawing, home they fly to bed.

There are over thirty different varieties of elm tree.  Most elms are large limbed with furrowed gray bark. They are frost hardy requiring cool to cold winters with full sun and deep, moist, fertile soil.  Propagate from cuttings in summer.  Dutch elm disease has devastated the population of elm trees in North America.