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Austrian Pine Seed
Pinus nigra austriacaPrice range: £8.00 through £23.00 inc. VATThe Austrian Pine is a commonly planted evergreen conifer with a dense head of large branches. The best suited of all the pines to chalky or lime rich soils, drought tolerant when established, though undoubtedly it grows better on rich, moist but well drained soils. The needles are dark green and in bundles of 2. Makes a good windbreak, especially in coastal areas.
Not for forestry purposes.
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Balsam Fir Seed
Abies balsameaPrice range: £5.00 through £7.00 inc. VATBalsam Fir is a medium sized tree with long leaves and a balsam scent. The cones are a purple / violet colour when young and tend to ooze sticky resin. Primarily grown for pulp and biomass. Balsam Fir oil is extracted for room fresheners, incense, cold remedies and rodent repellent. It is extremely hardy. There are many different varieties used for ornamental purposes, some of which are dwarf/slow growing and some with different coloured foliage.
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Black Spruce Seed
Picea marianaPrice range: £5.00 through £14.50 inc. VATBlack Spruce is a medium sized tree with dark blue green leaves which are densely packed on the upper surfaces of the branchlets. Widespread across Canada, the timber is used for pulp and cross-laminated timber but also for mass produced chop-sticks or the fast food industry!
Pic courtesy of U.S Fish and Wildlife Service , public domain
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Colorado Blue Spruce Seed
Picea pungens glaucaPrice range: £5.00 through £18.00 inc. VATColorado Blue Spruce has needles leaves that tend to turn green with age; so those at the base of branches are green, resulting in an attractive variation of colour down the branch. It is architectural in form. If grown in a pot it is good for bringing into the house as a Christmas tree for a short while (cool room preferred!) Care free, since pruning would spoil it’s even shape.
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Colorado White Fir Seed
Abies concolorPrice range: £5.00 through £13.00 inc. VATColorado White Fir is a widely grown conifer with grey needles up to 6cm long. It is a beautiful large tree with grey bark and long cylindrical cones. The wood it produces is soft and non resinous, with a good ability to hold nails(!?) which makes it an important timber tree.
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Corkbark Fir Seed
Abies lasiocarpaPrice range: £5.00 through £13.00 inc. VATCork Bark Fir is a very ornamental conifer which is relatively rare in its native area. It has attractive densely arranged, blue-green needles. The bark on mature trees becomes deeply furrowed and corky. This tree is extremely hardy, growing near the tree-line in Arizona and New Mexico. It tolerates near alpine conditions, but is a real asset to a smaller garden since it is slow growing.
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Corsican Pine Seed
Pinus nigra corsicanaPrice range: £8.00 through £26.00 inc. VATCorsican Pine(Pinus nigra) is a species especially suited as windbreaks, preferring well drained soils and it can also tolerate coastal conditions. It is a two needle pine, the needles often being slightly twisted. Pinus nigra are found, in variations, round the Mediterranean. In the UK it is used in preference to Scots pine as a timber tree, for building and for pulp.
Not for forestry purposes.
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Douglas Fir Seed
Pseudotsuga menziesii / taxifoliaPrice range: £6.00 through £35.00 inc. VATDouglas Fir is regarded as the king of the Pacific coast forests. It is a fast growing, large conifer with down swept branches in mature specimens. It is an important import to Europe for timber production, but also an ornamental tree of value. Sometimes grown as a Christmas tree especially in USA, when it has to be trimmed to grow into a neat shape with dense branches. The fissured bark carries resinous blisters and the foliage also has a resinous scent.
Not for forestry purposes.
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Engelmann Spruce Seed
Picea engelmanniiPrice range: £5.00 through £22.00 inc. VATThe Engelmann Spruce is the most common spruce to be found in the Rockies where it grows to 30m tall. It likes deep well drained soils. Related to White Spruce (P. glauca ) and hybridizes with them, given a chance. The timber is used for pulp and paper making but also to make the fronts of guitars where it gives a clean pale colour. The tree is narrowly, neatly conical in shape and small branches tend to droop a bit. Needles are green with white bands both above and beneath and are quite soft. When crushed they smell of menthol. There are one or two named selections of the species available with greyer foliage.
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European Silver Fir Seed
Abies alba£7.00 inc. VATThe European Silver Fir is common in the mountains of France, Germany and Switzerland. When young it makes a symmetrical conical shape. In the wild it is found in areas of high rainfall and northern aspect, in mixed forests of Norway Spruce and Beech. Foliage and timber are highly pine scented and essential oils are extracted from them. The white wood is mainly used for construction, pulp, plywood and paper manufacture. It is quite often grown for Christmas tree production, more so in America than Europe.
Not for forestry purposes.
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Fraser Fir Seed
Abies fraseriPrice range: £5.00 through £15.00 inc. VATFraser Fir is often cultivated as a Christmas tree in the USA since it is scented and has non-drop, blue grey needles; it is slow growing when young taking 10 years to reach 2.5 to 3m. As a young tree the branches are quite dense, but growth becomes more open as the tree ages. It never grows really huge. The small upright cones fall to pieces to shed the seeds when they are about 6mths old. In the wild it is rare. Enjoys short cool summers and survives cold and snowy winters.
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Grand Fir Seed
Abies grandisPrice range: £6.00 through £25.00 inc. VATGrand Fir is an extremely fast growing conifer, although for the first few years is slow. Needles are very aromatic(grapefruit) when crushed, buds deep purple often covered with resin. The top branches fan out, it does not grow to a flat head. It loves high rainfall areas like its native habitat in north-west America.
Not for forestry purposes.
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Korean Fir Seed
Abies koreanaPrice range: £5.00 through £8.00 inc. VATThe Korean Fir is a small, very neat tree with needles that are 1 to 2 cm long, dark glossy green on top, white underneath. It produces prominent, decorative violet or purple cones about 5 to 8 cm long, which disintegrate when about 6mths old.
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Lodgepole / Beach Pine Seed
Pinus contortaPrice range: £5.00 through £14.00 inc. VATLodgepole Pine is a medium sized tree with short branches and paired yellowish green leaves. The cones appear in clusters and the tree is often grown in coastal areas. Pictures show cones, male flowers (cream coloured)and female flowers(pink/purple)
pic courtesy of MPF, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Not for forestry purposes.
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Meyer’s Spruce Seed
Picea meyeriPrice range: £5.00 through £14.00 inc. VATMeyer’s Spruce is a decorative, medium-fast growing conifer with grey green needles, purple male catkins and copper brown cones. Rare in the wild, since subalpine forests are in decline. Where commercially planted it’s used for construction timber and pulp, but could be a good Xmas tree.
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Noble Fir Seed
Abies nobilis / proceraPrice range: £6.00 through £11.50 inc. VATNoble Fir is a beautiful coniferous tree noted for its blue-green needles. They grow densely packed, often hiding the brown new shoots and buds. It is used in floristry as well as for Christmas trees. It grows on the western side of America, but further south than the Red Fir, to which it is closely related.
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Nordmann/Caucasian Fir Seed
Abies nordmanniana£6.50 inc. VATThe Nordmann is a fir of great ornamental value and much valued in ‘non-drop’Christmas tree production for its dense foliage. Wonderful, even, conical shapes develop and the foliage is soft-looking, not spikey. Blue cones
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Norway Spruce Seed
Picea abiesPrice range: £5.00 through £17.00 inc. VATNorway Spruce is the traditional and most widely grown Christmas tree and makes a good stand-alone tree. It is used as a prickly security hedge in many alpine villages. It makes a virtually impenetrable barrier and doesn’t need much pruning or trimming once the tops have been taken out.
Not for forestry purposes.
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Oriental Spruce Seed
Picea orientalisPrice range: £5.00 through £10.00 inc. VATOriental Spruce is a large densely branched tree with branches and dark green leaves down to ground level. The needles are short and tightly packed too, giving a neat and tidy effect. The young cones are 10cm long and purple, maturing to brown, curved. A seedling was selected, golden needled, which has been vegetatively propagated to give a named cultivar ‘Skylands’
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Pacific Silver Fir Seed
Abies amabilisPrice range: £6.00 through £25.00 inc. VATPacific Silver Fir is a native of north-west America In Europe it is grown as an ornamental tree. It is quite often found growing with Douglas Fir. Amabilis means beautiful and it can resemble Abies nordmanniana, with dark green soft needles, white undersides. The timber is not very useful for construction, just for pulp. Sometimes grown for the Christmas market.
pic courtesy of Orjen at the English-language Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
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Red Fir Seed
Abies magnificaPrice range: £7.00 through £26.00 inc. VATRed Fir forms the great conifer forests of the Sierra Nevada of California. It has long blue-green needles and purple cones of up to 20 cm long. The bark turns red as the tree ages. Mature trees grow into a slim conical shape. Closely related to Noble Fir but it doesn’t have a groove down the centre of the needle and the needles are less densely packed along the branch. Used for timber, pulp and Christmas trees
PIC COURTESY OF Tyler Karaszewski from Alameda, CA, USA, CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
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Scots Pine Seed
Pinus sylvestrisPrice range: £5.00 through £20.00 inc. VATScots Pine is the only pine native to Britain and is easily recognised by its attractive reddish bark. It’s needles grow in pairs and are quite long when the tree is young and fast growing, but become shorter growing with age. It has a conical growth habit when young, making it popular for Bonsai production and increasingly for use as a Christmas tree. When mature the tree makes a wonderful architectural shape. Once extensively covering land in Scotland, there are now only a few remaining ancient Caledonian Forests due to the iconic Scots Pine being used as a timber tree. Conservation bodies and landowners are trying to rectify this. (Trees for Life)
Not for forestry purposes.
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Serbian Spruce Seed
Picea omorikaPrice range: £5.00 through £24.50 inc. VATSerbian Spruce is a very adaptable spruce which quickly forms a tall slender tree with short drooping branches and dark green/grey needle leaves, with blue undersides. It is sometimes used as a Christmas Tree, but the needles are very prickly and sharp. Makes a good barrier when young and a lovely specimen tree on maturity. Dark purple cones turn brown as they ripen.
pic courtesy of UBothFr91, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
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Sitka Spruce Seed
Picea sitchensisPrice range: £5.00 through £15.00 inc. VATSitka Spruce is probably one of the most important species of conifer from an economic viewpoint. It thrives on damp sites and poor soils. Used extensively for timber and pulp production, but also can be used for Christmas trees. Picture shows an enormous tree in the Benmore Botanic Gardens, near Dunoon(www.rbge.org.uk/visit/benmore-botanic-garden). Sitka can be used as a relaxed hedge – just chop out the leader and it will bush out to make a prickly barrier.
Not for forestry purposes.
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