An interesting article came out today suggesting there are three trillion trees on our planet, of which 15 billion are removed each year by mankind and only 5 billion replaced. This significant annual deficit is unsurprisingly thought to have consequences on climate change. To emphasize this point it is estimated that since the last ice age 11,000 years ago, human kind has been responsible for removing three trillion trees. So, on this data, we are now halfway to stripping trees away from our planet entirely. Dismissing the figures, which could be wild estimates, the trend remains very alarming.

At present there are approximately 420 trees for every person on the planet, but with the population rising and trees stocks annually being eroded, we are potentially walking gently to hard times ahead. I wonder where and when the tipping point will be?

Most nurseries import trees to sell on straight away but here at Barcham we adopt a different approach! I went out yesterday to take a few photos of our field trees that will be containerised this autumn for eventual supply in our Light Pots for autumn 2016. Growth rates have been great this year, not too hot or cold with wet days coming along just before it gets too dry. Our Carpinus betulus Fastigiata (Upright Hornbeam) look amazing this year, all lovely and uniform and as straight as pins. We have about 700 of these to lift, some for 65lt pots and some for 100lt pots depending on their girth by the end of September. Some will be left feathered (branches all the way down the trunk) and some will be legged up to have a clear stemmed trunk of 1.8 metres to cater for every planting need.

Our Betula utilis Jacquemontii (White Birch) are also romping away with single stem and multi stem batches all at the top end of their targeted harvest size.

Pyrus calleryana Chanticleer (Ornamental pear) is always a great choice for garden screening as they hold onto their leaves for so long in the autumn and our batch of large and instant sized trees are shaping up very nicely.

Our field trees are all grown about 6 miles away from the main Barcham container unit and they are grown to combat the extremely windy and exposed conditions that the flat fen land throws at them. As we have grown them from scratch, we don’t have to suffer the problems of new pests and diseases associated with imported plants from Europe that is proving to be such a threat to our native trees in recent years.

Our field trees will finish their growing cycle by October and the Pines will be first to be lifted in late September. The deciduous trees will be lifted after leaf drop and when they are dormant in November.

Posted by Mike Glover

It is particularly hard to establish trees near coastal environments as the sea breezes laden with salt air constantly blasts the leaves. Last week the South West of England was pounded by 50mph winds and standard trees were thrown about with their leaf canopy acting as a sail. It is better to plant stocky multi stemmed trees on exposed or coastal sites as these are bottom heavy and don’t rock about in the wind as much. Picking the right variety is crucial.

Quercus ilex, Tamarix and Acer pseudoplatanus types are the first choice. Sadly, out of the 400 varieties we grow only about half a dozen will make a go of it within sight of the sea and even these will struggle if the weather is constantly against them in the first year after planting. Always aim to plant in March / April for seaside schemes as then the trees don’t have to suffer the winter battering they would get if planted more traditionally in the autumn. Also, find out how the tree has been grown previously. If it has been growing in a nice protected area before you get it it’s not for you!

So, in summary, for seaside gardens start with an appropriate coastal tolerant variety, plant small stocky multi stemmed trees that are able to withstand the coastal winds, plant in spring rather than the autumn and water well in the first season after planting. Follow these principals and you can be very successful quite quickly, stray into planting experiments and nature will knock you down quickly!

Posted by Mike Glover

All over the country there are examples of Robinia pseudoacacia Frisia in decline. This tree was hugely popular in the 1980’s and 90’s and was planted widely in gardens and municipal streets alike. However, in recent years this tree has succumbed to bacterial and fungal blights that firstly effect the leaf canopy of the tree and then causes die back in the crown before the entire tree fails. We stopped growing this variety about 10 years ago as it was clear to us that it was not a good prospect but it is still asked for and planted even though we have never seen a thriving tree of this variety in the last decade!

Our advice is to skip this tree for another choice. If you want a good yellow foliaged tree, Gleditsia triacanthos Sunburst is the ready substitute even though Acer platanoides Princeton Gold is our favoured choice for larger gardens. If a more round headed and large golden leaf is favoured, there is also Catalpa bignoniodies Aurea which makes a fine choice. The toughest yellow is Acer pseudoplatanus Worleii which can form in to a large broadly rounded tree but by being part of the sycamore family it is particularly strong to combat exposed conditions. For wet ground, Alnus incana Aurea is the best bet and this has the added benefit of orange stems and red catkins throughout the dormant winter period. Many golden leaved trees are most pronounced in the spring when their colour is vibrant before they calm down to a yellow/ green by mid-summer. Subsequent flushes produce another strong burst of yellow before the whole canopy reverts to another clear yellow show before leaf fall in the autumn.

So there is lots of choice to get yellow in your garden without the doomed planting of Robinia Frisia!

The trick to show off yellow leaved trees is to plant them with a good contrasting darker background such as a mature bank of mature trees in the distance or to site them in front of tall evergreen hedging. The foliage then shines back at you to provide a superb colour feature within a garden. This has the added effect of lightening up the area that needs a lift.

Posted by Mike Glover

There are many forms of pleached tree but at Barcham we mainly produce them to have a 1.8 metre clear stem that supports a flat bamboo panel 1.2 metres wide by 1 metre tall. This produces a ‘foliage window’ above fence height that is ideal for screening without taking any lateral room up in a small garden. We do a range of varieties as pleached stock including Carpinus betulus, Acer campestre, Pyrus calleryana Chanticleer, Liquidambar styraciflua Worplesdon, Malus Evereste & Rudolph, Tilia euchlora and Sorbus aria Lutescens to name but a few!

Maintenance is easy, prune once a year in March back to the pleached frame to keep them tidy and in check. If you just leave them the tree will eventually reform its desired shape as nature intended and become a big tree, often too large for its location. We do pleached trees to varying stem heights depending on the wall or fence line they are set against. Recently we have just grown a Liquidambar pleach with only a 50cm clear stem to clear a very low retaining stone wall.

If you plant pleached trees with their frames about 50cm apart they will meet in the middle after one growing season to form a solid flat screen. Pleached trees will need staking like any other for the first couple of seasons after planting. Please see our planting guide

If you are after tiered branches rather than a solid panel of leaves you are wanting an espaliered tree rather than a pleach. These we grow to order as every requirement is different and there is a lot of work that goes into them.

Topiary trees are another proposition! We were once commissioned to grow Hornbeam in nine foot letters spelling ‘Welcome to Doncaster’ and they are still seen growing well on the roundabout off the A1, Rotherham / Doncaster exit. I have seen trees fashioned as horses, cars or even dinosaurs, it just takes time to achieve, followed by a lot of little and often pruning maintenance

.Posted by Mike Glover

I took myself off for a walk around one of my favourite estates last week, Burghley House in Stamford, Lincolnshire. Mature trees in this setting are a joy to behold and the light was perfect for a bit of photography. We have supplied this estate for a number of years and it is good to know our trees will be viewed by someone in a couple of hundred years’ time and may be appreciated as much as I did this time round.

This oak tree is magnificent and I collect acorns from it every other autumn as it only produces seed biannually. We have seedlings growing as part of our Heritage Range that will be available in due course. These veteran trees are steeped in history; there is another Oak in Northamptonshire that was around at the same time as Richard 3rd and still thrives about a mile away from where he was born and where Mary Queen of Scots was beheaded. The seedlings from this tree are particularly special.

In the meantime keep enjoying your local mature trees this summer, planted by people long since gone, but enjoyed by me and many more!

Posted by Mike Glover

Firstly let me apologise for not sending the blog out sooner. You have probably seen from social media that life on the nursery has been quite busy. We did the Big Barn conference back in June, for the production side this involved a general tidy of the whole nursery and now it looks great for all the summer visits.

The crop has grown particular well this summer with a cool gentle start which really benefits our trees in the containers. The flowering cherries looked particular great this year, very little frost meant that the flower stayed on for longer.

We are well into the growing season and the stock is looking fantastic and responding well to our summer feed regime which started in May by putting a blended feed into our irrigation system so the trees get fed little and often with our nitrogen based mix. This will carry on to late summer when we will change the feed to help the trees move into the autumn/ winter period.

The summer pruning program has now finished and our pleaching program has started which involves selecting stock such as Malus, Liquidambar, Hornbeam, Lime and Beech. These will be pleached onto 1m by 1.2m frames with an average 1.8m clear stem. We can also do larger panels to accommodate whatever height or width is required. Raised screening can prove more economical than fencing and certainly a lot prettier.

Summer is the time when we start filming for our’ buy the tree you see’ on the website, this will take place until the end of August so look out for the lovely stock coming through this autumn.

This great weather has also given Mike and I the chance to take some extra pictures for the website. Stock around the nursery is grown in batches so this season if we do not have the tree you want in ‘buy the tree you see’ there will be a new section called ‘buy from batch’. The 500 shots taken will be uploaded onto the web site by the autumn.

With the weather being so glorious the crops in the polytunnel have grown exceptionally well. This stock will be available to buy on the web site in due course.

Have a great summer and look forward to catching up in the autumn

Posted by Warren Holmes-Chatfield

Pruning is an invaluable tool in the gardener’s armoury but timeliness is everything. I absolutely hammered the Hibiscus in my garden in December and look at it now, only 6 months later with most of the growing season to come. As Hibiscus flowers are borne off new season growth I will get over 10 times the amount of blooms in August compared to if I had left the tree unpruned over winter. In the autumn I also applied a tablespoon on white granulated sugar to the base of the tree so it could adsorb a nutrient loading meal to see it through the winter months and prepare it for its spring flush. On this evidence this has all worked rather well!

As a general rule prune deciduous trees when they are dormant and leafless in winter and prune evergreen trees just before they start to produce leaves in the spring.

Pruning can produce wonderful shapes to trees and tame a large tree to thrive within a small garden. Care has to be taken with fruiting trees as much of the next seasons flower bud can be removed if the tree is pruned in the winter. Disappointingly, no flower equals no fruit so beware! Pruning Apples, Pears and Plums is a bit of an art form, always try and leave some of last year’s wood on the tree as this holds the new season flower.

When I coppice my Corylus avellana Zellernus, Red Hazel, I take everything off above 10cm from ground level. I sacrifice the spring catkin display but the resultant growth makes up to 2 metres the following season with leaf size generally enhanced. When a tree is pruned at the right time the root is empowered to drive on vigorous top growth in an effort to make up with lost time.

Knowing the physiology of your tree and prune it at the right moment will lead to very satisfying results!

Posted by Mike Glover

With temperatures climbing into the 30’s your newly planted trees will be particularly susceptible to drying out. This includes trees planted last autumn and winter. A gentle dose of one medium watering can with rose attachment on a daily basis will work wonders when it gets this hot, keeping the soil moist with plenty of accessible water for the root system. For fear of spilling water all over the floor of the conservatory at Barcham, I water our indoor plants with blocks of ice that still take all day to melt even on really hot days. The water release is so slow that it gives time for the compost to grip it rather than drip through the pot and onto the floor.

Every evening I water the Hibiscus in my garden that I planted last November and it is thriving. It has put on 10cm of extension growth already which is great because this will support a full canopy of flowers later on in August. Little and often with water, that’s the secret!

Posted by Mike Glover