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Crab Apple Seed
Malus sylvestris£4.00 – £6.00 inc. VATCrab Apples are small deciduous trees growing to 8m tall with white flowers that may be tinged with pink when they appear in late spring. Pollinated by bees. The fruits grow to 2.5cm across in the autumn and are sour to eat but make a delicious conserve. They are also good for wildlife with fruit remaining well into the winter. It can be pruned and chopped quite harshly if needed, in the winter.
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Creeping Dogwood Seed
Cornus canadensis£10.00 inc. VATCreeping Dogwood is actually a herbaceous perennial with a creeping woody rootstock. It forms an attractive carpet of foliage starred with white flowers in May and June which are succeeded by bright red fruits in early autumn. The white ‘petals’ are really bracts surrounding balls of tiny flowers. Useful decorative ground cover for shady places and needs little maintenance.
pic courtesy of Superior National Forest, CC BY 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
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Damson Seed
Prunus domestica insititia£7.00 – £15.00 inc. VATThe damson is a subspecies of the plum. A small deciduous tree, it produces the oval damson fruit which has a green yellow flesh and dark blue or indigo skin. The fruits can hang shrivelled well into the winter. It produces white blossom in April, good for early pollinators. Pruning is not advisable in the winter because a bacterial canker can get into the wounds, but if necessary Damson can be chopped in the summer.
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Daphne / Spurge Laurel berries
Daphne mezereum£4.50 inc. VATDaphne mezereum is a small twiggy deciduous shrub that flowers in very early spring, before the leaves emerge. Highly scented purple red flowers are followed by poisonous scarlet fruits. It thrives on chalky soils. This product is sold as dried berries which are still poisonous. Slow growing and often used in winter gardens and medium scale rockeries. Once planted, it’s best not to transplant or disturb. Appreciates mulching with compost or leaf mould in late spring.
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Dawn Redwood Seed
Metasequoia glyptostroboides£2.50 – £8.50 inc. VATThe Dawn Redwood, thought of as a ‘living fossil’, is a deciduous conifer, the leaves of which turn tawny pink and old gold in autumn. It is fast growing and makes quite a narrow conical tree with a shaggy bark that falls off in ribbons. The trunk itself tends to be broad at the bottom. It is widely planted as an ornamental tree but in the wild the population is decreasing. It is protected in China, but over-collection of seed from the wild has resulted in a lack of regeneration in its native areas. The first fossils of the tree were discovered in 1941, in China, and were aged at 150million years old!
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Deodar Cedar Seed
Cedrus deodara£5.50 inc. VATDeodar Cedar is a large conifer with a pendulous growth habit when young. It keeps a droopy leading shoot even on mature trees. Needle-like leaves, up to 5cm long, have a bluish bloom when young. Architectural, so makes a good specimen tree. The timber is rot resistant, close grained and aromatic and therefore historically used for storage rooms and boxes, having a certain amount of anti-fungal and insect repellent properties. Deodar forests were/are thought to be sacred to the God Shiva and used as places of meditation. It is the national tree of Pakistan.
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Diel’s Cotoneaster Seed
Cotoneaster dielsianus£2.75 inc. VATDiel’s is an evergreen cotoneaster with small ovate leaves and red fruit. Can be pruned to make a neater shape, but a hardy and useful filler. The tiny flowers are attractive to bees in the summer.
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Dog Rose Seed
Rosa canina£3.00 inc. VATThe Dog Rose is a hedgerow shrub with an open growth habit and long, arching, prickly stems. It is often used in reclamation planting and for land stabilisation. In early summer it produces large scented flowers that vary from pink through to white. The rosehips are egg shaped and bright red providing autumn colour and food for wildlife. Packed with vitamin C , the hips in the form of a tea have been used to treat kidney problems. The national flower of Romania
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Douglas Fir Seed
Pseudotsuga menziesii / taxifolia£4.00 – £20.00 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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Dunkeld Larch Seed
Larix x eurolepsis£3.50 – £25.00 inc. VATThe Dunkeld Larch was found in Dunkeld, Perthshire, in about 1897. It is an intermediate between the parents (kaempferi x decidua) but with hybrid vigour. A similar hybrid was found at about the same time in Switzerland hence the two different latin names! It is a variable deciduous conifer which gives good yellow autumn colour, contrasting well with other forestry trees. New growth varies from pink to orange brown. Tough, hardy and resilient.
Not for forestry purposes.
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Dwarf Mountain Pine
Pinus uncinata rotundata£2.50 – £13.50 inc. VATAlso known as Pinus mugo uncinata or P. mugo rotundata, some confusion exists about this Mountain Pine! Found infrequently on high wet moors and survives in frost pockets. Grows to a wide pyramidal conifer with a strong leader. It is useful for large scale rock gardens.
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Dwarf Mountain Pine (Mughus)Seed
Pinus mugo mughus£2.50 – £17.00 inc. VATDwarf Mountain Pine is a shrubby conifer with dark green needles set in pairs. Mountain Pine succeeds on all well drained soils including chalk and limestone. A good evergreen addition to larger rock and scree gardens, adding form and winter interest.
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Eastern / Flowering Dogwood Seed
Cornus florida£3.50 – £7.00 inc. VATEastern / Flowering Dogwood is a large shrub or small tree. In winter the flower buds are enclosed in 4 white bracts which open in spring; the bracts form “petals” which are tinged pink at the apex forming a very pretty “flower.”
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Eglantine / Sweet Briar Seed
Rosa rubiginosa / eglanteria£3.60 inc. VATThe Eglantine Rose is a medium sized, dense, spiney deciduous shrub with aromatic leaves, smelling of apples. The single pink flowers are simple, beautiful and fragrant. Bright red oval hips persist well into the winter and are a good source of Vitamin C. In some countries (New Zealand, South Africa and Australia) it is seen as an invasive weed, but in UK there are no problems with it. Prune in autumn or winter and it can be sheared back quite hard if necessary.
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Elderberry / Common Elder Seed
Sambucus nigra£6.00 inc. VATElderberry is a large shrub or small tree with rugged bark and 5 to 7 leaflets. The leaves smell a bit odd. It bears flattened heads of white flowers in early summer which give rise to dense bunches of small black fruits. The fruit famously makes a good wine or can be used to flavour gin. The flowers are used to make cordial or champagne. It grows well on chalk and is being harvested commercially for both flowers and berries. Common in larger hedges and wood margins. It is excellent for wildlife – insects on the flowers and birds for the berries.
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Engelmann Spruce Seed
Picea engelmannii£3.00 – £20.00 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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English Oak / Common Oak
Quercus robur£4.00 – £7.50 inc. VATThe English Oak makes a large, impressive, long lived tree, an icon of the British countryside! It develops a large head of rugged branches. The deciduous leaves are stalkless, auricled at the base with shallow lobes and turn a good yellow and copper in the autumn. The acorn fruits are attached to the tree by a slender stalk. It plays host to masses of wildlife that depend on it. The auricles are one of the ways of distinguishing between English Oak and Sessile Oak.
Not for forestry purposes.
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Erman’s Birch Seed
Betula ermanii£6.00 inc. VATErman’s birch has a distinctive creamy white bark which shows off well after the leaves have fallen in winter. In the summer it has conspicuous bright green heart shaped leaves, and yellow autumn colour. Makes a fine, small to medium tree, sometimes multi-stemmed and casts only light shade.
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Eucalyptus kitsoniana/bog gum
£10.00 inc. VATEucalyptus kitsoniana
Good ornamental specimen for its broad glossy leaves and varied bark that sheds in ribbons. mallee form. Found inland and on coastal plains, and flats near water.Often grown for floristry.
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European Larch Seed
Larix decidua£4.00 – £24.50 inc. VATEuropean Larch, Larix decidua, is a fast growing deciduous conifer. It has a slender conical crown when young with drooping branches in older specimens. Fine needles turn yellow in autumn and the small brown cones stay on the tree through the winter. Great areas have been planted for timber and it is useful as a nurse tree for other trees since it grows so fast and is very hardy.
Not for forestry purposes.
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European Silver Fir Seed
Abies alba£6.50 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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Evergreen / Holm Oak
Quercus ilex£6.50 – £10.00 inc. VATThe Holm Oak is a large evergreen tree with an attractive corrugated bark. The leaves are a dark glossy green not unlike holly but vary in shape and size. It can become deciduous in the very coldest areas but is an excellent tree for coastal areas.
Not for forestry purposes.
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False Acacia / Black Locust Tree Seed
Robinia pseudoacacia£5.00 inc. VATRobinia or False Acacia grows to be a large suckering tree with furrowed bark. The fragrant white flowers have a yellow base to the petal and attract bees in the early summer, Acacia honey is well known and very tasty! The tree has been used to stop soil erosion because of its tendency to sucker and the timber is also useful. Being leguminous means that the roots ‘fix’ nitrogen from the air into the soil which is a useful trait, helping soil nutrition
Not for forestry purposes.
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Field Maple Seed
Acer campestre£3.00 inc. VATField Maple is a pretty, medium sized deciduous tree often seen forming parts of hedgerows although it makes a good small specimen tree too. The five-lobed leaves turn bright yellow in autumn and may be flushed red. The miniature sycamore-type winged seed are quite often pink too, before they ripen. When young this tree will tolerate quite deep shade, but requires more light to flower and fruit. Insect friendly
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