The ailing oak tree in Midsummer Place is showing the first signs of a tentative recovery, the Citizen can reveal.

This week saw tiny but healthy new leaves sprouting on the famous 150-year-old specimen, which forms the centrepiece to the shopping centre.

The once-mighty oak's decline had left experts stumped for months.

They had tried a remarkable catalogue of remedies ranging from tonics and massage to biopsies and even amputation of branches.

But nothing failed to stop the tree shedding its leaves and looking more wilted by the day.

The story of the tree's plight prompted a huge response from Citizen readers and a bumper postbag of letters offering help and advice.

One local company volunteered to Xray the trunk, an offer gratefully accepted by Midsummer Place centre manager Martin Hindson.

"The Xray showed the trunk to be 95 per cent healthy, which was good news. But it meant the problem must be in the roots of the tree – perhaps because of overwatering or restriction of growth," he said.

Now the same company, Continental Landscapes, is to return this week to carry out a rare Terraventing treatment to perk up the roots.

"This involves putting rods down and blasting compressed air several feet below the ground.

"It loosens any compaction of the soil," explained Martin.

Meanwhile local Reiki healers took the tree's predicament to their collective hearts and held a mass healing session to channel positive energy into its depleted branches.

"The Reiki may well have worked. Who knows?" said Martin.

"The tree is definitely looking a little better and we are cautiously optimistic about its prospects."

He has thanked all the Citizen readers for their concern about the tree.

"We knew it was famous, but until the Citizen story, we didn't realise quite how much people cared about it," he said.