Buddleia davidii

And the buddleia was way up near the top - the tower is 100 feet high.

Interesting project and fabulous views, but I don't think I would want to live there.

Coincidentally, on Grand Designs tonight a huge old water tower in central London is being restored for residential purposes. A fascia was near to collapse and the culprit was found to be..... buddleia, of course!

Neat Roundup on the stump will probably do the trick, but what will happen to the chimney mortar when the roots rot away? You may need to get the builder back.

I would say tar but that might be a chimney stack fire hazard. Agree you need to check what damage might be incurred when roots are gone.

Have you tried setting fire to it?

MMm maybe if you know a friendly surveyor. We don't know whether you are talking about a mere seedling or a monster. Assume it is the rock-hard wild type rather than nice hybrid.
Also - if there are gaps in your chimney structure big enough for one of these to root into - maybe that is what you should be worried about (sorry!)

Nellies right about it holding the chimney together; hadn't thought of that.

re-treat, as in treat again.

I'd do what anno suggested, using Roundup. You might have to retreat by spraying any leaves that appear next year. With regard to the problem nelliem mentioned, you don't have to remove the root, just kill it, otherwise it will carry on eating away at you chimney stack mortar.

But please let us know what "the professionals" suggest.

Good luck.

Thanks all. Will chat with the local garden centre and see if they have any good ideas.

katybelle I would be very careful not to take any action, don't even kill it, without professional advice. It might be difficult to decide if the bush is pulling your chimney apart or just about holding it together.

Buddleia and Birch trees do this, they seem to be able to survive in the tops of old walls. Platform 11 at Crewe Station has a row of tiny birch trees along the top of quite a high wall right by the track. These have been there for at least a couple of years.

I dont know if British Rail are worried or if anyone knows who's responsibilty it might be to clear them away. Railtrack or BR or West coast main line. I dont understand who runs the trains anymore!

This is the second attempt at this post! I think I previewed the first one it and then failed to "post" it. If you find my marbles please return them forthwith!

You could try cutting it down close to the root and then apply stump killer, but it's a persistent thing! I have two but at least they are in the right places. The nicer one is very dark purple; I think it's called Dark Knight (or Night?)

yes i guess they incur a cost for network rail damn them.

Sorry this is of no help whatsoever but just dug a monster out of my back garden. Horrible thing.

But they then get on the train tracks. Once saw a programme about [I think]ragwort and how it spread all over the country from it being on one persons shoes. Sort of eggplantthatatechicago/dayofthetriffids stuff.

Suspect heavy duty poison in this case.
I once killed one by repeatedly cutting off all stems and leaves. It took ages. it was known in my house as "the bloody buddleia"
Basically the ordinary kind put on about 4 or 5 metres growth a year. Good for railway sidings and derelict sites. And butterflies.

Oh; I posted something that's gone walkabout. My son bought some stuff from a garden centre to kill of a willow tree that was growing close to his house, so you could ask a local garden centre [or landscape gardener?].

We've got one growing out of our house wall. It looks lovely against the granite until you realise that it shouldn't really be there. We have the same problem with Valerian which actually ate our granite garden wall. That looked nice too!

They're really invasive aren't they [like cotoneaster]. The railways have problems with invasive plants; would anyone there know.