Planting trees is a crucial investment in all landscape design across Essex and Suffolk
Planting trees can have huge benefits, from beautifying a garden landscape and enhancing curb appeal, to shading people or homes and providing a bit of much needed privacy. At Hortus Pink, we are dedicated to designing gardens that help us live, work and invest in greener surroundings. We always include carefully selected and placed trees in our garden designs. As our climate gets hotter and the ozone layer deteriorates, we need shady places to keep our skin out of the sun and enjoy spending time in our gardens at home.
Key tree facts with some surprising information
- Tees are essential for life. As the longest living and most important species on earth, they link us between the past, present and future.
- Trees are the biggest plants on the planet. Trees give us oxygen, store carbon, stabilise the soil and support life on our planet.
- UK trees are growing fewer by the decade. Global warming is progressing faster than some UK native trees can adapt to. The UK only has 26 native species, while Europe has hundreds.
- Trees help prevent flooding and soil erosion. Trees absorb thousands of litres of rain water every year, further demonstrating their importance in maintaining a healthy environment.
- Trees are complex microhabitats. When young, they offer habitation and food to amazing communities of birds, insects, lichen and fungi. When ancient, their trunks also provide the hollow cover needed by species such as bats, wood-boring beetles, tawny owls and woodpeckers.
- We don't have enough trees. With just 13% woodland cover, the UK needs billions more trees to tackle climate change and save nature.
- Tree biodiversity is important. Mixed tree planting is essential when creating diverse hybrid ecosystem.
- Trees help control our climate. Trees reduce wind speeds and cool the air as they lose moisture and reflect heat upwards from their leaves. It’s estimated that trees can reduce the temperature in a city by up to 7°C.
- A tree lined street has positive impact. Research shows that average house prices are 5-18% higher when properties are close to mature trees.
- Trees at home and at work. Companies benefit from a healthier, happier workforce if there are parks and trees nearby. Trees in a garden provide a tranquil almost meditative space, with huge emotional and psychological health benefits of engaging with, and being immersed in, a tree filled garden of exquisite detail and calmness.
Right tree, right place - an essential combination for Essex and Suffolk garden landscaping
Every tree that we provide is UK or Ireland sourced and grown to minimise the risk of importing and spreading tree pests and diseases. With new build gardens getting smaller, and the issue around what to plant and where, to avoid detrimentally impacting nearby property foundations - careful tree selection and placement is essential.
Tree support roots usually grow inside the drip line (a vertical line down from the outer most leaves). Tree feeder roots can extend well beyond the drip line with most located in the top 2ft of soil. New trees need their mature support roots considered when placed near to buildings, unless they are to be pruned regularly - control the canopy and you simultaneously control the roots. For example a pleached Hornbeam tree has a highly controlled canopy (and roots), but left unpruned can reach 20 metres!
Hortus Pink top 10 trees for smaller garden landscaping projects
As our selection of trees have evolved in the regions in which they grow, they’ve adapted to thrive in the UK climate, support beneficial wildlife and pollinators, and help to give the landscape a sense of place. Here are our top 10 favourite for smaller garden ideas:
Amelanchier Lamarckii multi stem “Juneberry, Serviceberry, Snowy Mespilus”
Why this tree: The perfect small garden or ornamental feature tree in any landscaping project, this multi-stem variety provides a beautiful fine trunk array to look through with delicate canopy above. Simply stunning when in bloom, this small tree has it all with berries for birds and a beautiful autumn colour show of changing leaves. A more st for the wildlife garden, I use this tree a lot in small garden designs.
Special features: Mature Height: 3-7m. This tree is naturalised over much of Western Europe and has the significant benefit of providing interest at all points of the year. Starting in spring, the profuse white flowers emerge in plentiful delicate clusters along the stems, covering the tree from top to bottom. Bright green foliage follow the blossom, with leaves emerging copper in colour by late spring. The fantastic rich red autumn colour of Amelanchier Lamarckii concludes this tree's remarkable display in conjunction with rounded fruits which are initially red in summer before turning black in the autumn. Although not the sweetest of tasting fruits, they are edible for people but I prefer to leave them for the birds to gorge on. This little tree as a superb addition to any garden planting scheme.
Growing tips: Amelanchier is a versatile, small-growing tree, which performs best in moist, well-drained, lime-free soil with good quality manure and bonemeal added to enrich the border before planting.
Eucalyptus Pauciflora ‘Mount Buffalo’ "Mt Buffalo Snow Gum"
Why this tree: Very ornamental foliage. Bark begins blue/lime green, becoming beautifully patterned with age.
Special features: Mature height after about 15-20 years could reach approximately 5-6m. An elegant tree with a slim upright habit and striking silvery foliages and flowers are white, in small clusters in June/July. A particularly hardy evergreen tree noted for its attractive addition to any garden. Good in exposed coastal locations once established, being able to thrive in salt-laden, windy locations.
Growing tips: Height can be controlled if pruned (March to May) to keep bushy. Medium growth rate of 1.0-1.5m (3-4ft) per year. Good hardiness rating, root-system should be happy down to around -18°C, once mature. Enjoys full sun and open sky above. Avoid shade cast by other tall trees and buildings. Requires a free draining soil in winter, hates having wet feet.
Crab Apple "Malus sylvestris"
Why this tree: The leaves are food for the caterpillars of many moths, including the eyed hawk-moth, green pug, Chinese character and pale tussock. The flowers provide an important source of early pollen and nectar for insects, particularly bees, and the fruit is eaten by birds, including blackbirds, thrushes and crows. Mammals, such as mice, voles, foxes and badgers, also eat crab apple fruit.
Special features: Mature height 7-9m over 20 years, growing around 30cm per annum. Crab apple is a wild ancestor of the cultivated apple and its wood has long been associated with love and marriage. Its sweetly-scented, pink-white blossom appears in spring and its apples ripen in later summer to autumn. You can use crab apples to make jellies and jams.
Growing tips: Prefers sun or semi-shade, will tolerate most soil types and dryness. They have an irregular, rounded shape and a wide, spreading canopy so will need space over time unless you prune the tree. Pruning to control and reduce the canopy can generally be carried out in winter, spring or summer, depending on what your end goal is.
Magnolia 'Porcelain Dove' "Semi-evergreen Magnolia tree"
Why this tree: Magnolia 'Porcelain Dove' is a semi-evergreen Magnolia with large pure white flowers that appear in May/June. The beautiful flowers are scented with an appealing spicy fragrance. This unusual semi-evergreen Magnolia hold its bright mid-green oval leaves throughout most of the winter.
Special features: Height and spread in 20 years: 4 x 3 metres. Seasons of interest: Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter. Foliage: Mid-green, semi-evergreen leaves. Flowers: Large white flowers in summer.
Growing tips: Prefers acidic soil in a part shade to sunny position and should be kept moist but well drained. Prefers loam, sand, clay soils. Magnolia Porcelain Dove trees can be pruned into shape, but should not be heavily pruned as they can go into shock.
Betula Utilis Jacquemontii 'Snow Queen' "Himalayan Birch"
Why this tree: Offers real winter wow factor with its snowy white, exfoliating bark. 'Snow Queen' is favoured for its slender form and the white bark which develops earlier than on other Himalayan Birch. Elegant mid-green ovate leaves are complemented by yellow/brown catkins in spring. In autumn, the foliage turns a beautiful golden yellow. It has an RHS Award of Garden Merit.
Special features: Available in multi-stem or single stem tree. This tree is favoured for its slender form suited to smaller gardens and will grow to a height and spread of 7 x 3.5 metres in 20 years.
Growing tips: This Himalayan Birch is a tough tree that will grow in virtually all soils and conditions. Himalayan Birch require a good watering regime for a couple of years to establish. Water well and regularly through spring and summer, increasing in hot or dry weather. Prefers wet soil to dry when young.
Cornus Kousa "hankerchief tree, kousa, dogwood tree, Chinese/Korean/Japanese dogwood"
Why this tree: Large, free-flowering deciduous shrub or small tree, with long, pointed, wavy-margined dark green leaves turning crimson-purple in autumn. Small green flowers produced in flower heads surrounded by 4 large creamy-white bracts to 5cm in length, in early summer followed by fleshy, deep pink, strawberry-like fruits which are edible, with a sweet and creamy flavour.
Special features: Mature height to 4-8m tall/ wide in 20 years. Cornus can be deciduous shrubs or trees, with brightly coloured young stems. Tiny flowers are borne in dense clusters, sometimes with showy bracts. Many have fine autumn colour.
Growing tips: Low maintenance and slow growing, they come in a wide range of shapes and sizes, for rich soil in sun or dappled shade. They prefer an organically-rich, fertile soil that is moist but must be well drained. Established dogwood trees are quite drought tolerant. Add iron sulphate or erracacious plant feed to the soil annually if neutral PH as they prefer it slightly acidic.
Juniperus Scopulorum 'Skyrocket' "Rocky Mountain Juniper Skyrocket"
Why this tree: A small conical coniferous tree with a narrowly columnar evergreen shape, with reddish bark and bright blue-green foliage. A smaller yet similar look to Cyprus trees on an Italian landscape, whose spectacular narrow form is a welcome addition to many small gardens. The most widespread native of all the New World junipers (America/ Mexico).
Special features: Mature height to 6m and 0.5-1m wide. Evergreen and drought resistant.
Growing tips: Any soil in full sun to part shade. Harmful if eaten/skin allergen. Low maintenance with no pruning required.
Any pleached tree "Hornbeam, Magnolia Grandiflora, Cherry Laurel, Photinia Red Robbin, Quercus Ilex"
Why this tree: Full Standard Trees that are frame trained as a flat rectangular shape are known as pleached trees. This is an extension of the age old art of espallier, literally taken to new heights. The tree is grown with a clear stem as a full standard, reaching circa 2 metres of trunk. Meanwhile the head of the tree has been expertly trained and pruned with the aid of a frame to create a flat rectangle.
Special features: Pleached trees have historically been used to create structure and form in the garden, a means to train the eye or mark a boundary, this form of training trees is centuries old. Choose evergreen species trained in this way, to create an above fence or above wall privacy screen, providing valuable boundary screening throughout the year.
Growing tips: The training frames are constructed from bamboo and the tree’s branches are selected and teased along the frame, carefully held in place with wire supports. Any wayward shoots are trimmed away and the tree soon takes on a fabulous architectural shape, which only requires a shape-up trim a couple of times a year. When planting Pleached trees an adequate staking or framework is factored in and also recommended that each frame is tied together to maintain a good line and one that is not likely to move in winter storms. Stakes can normally be removed in around 3-5 years.
Ornamental Cherry "Prunus Okame, Prunus Spire, Prunus Serrulata, Prunus cerasifera 'Nigra' Tree.
Why this tree: These trees are a truly wonderful addition to any garden design – to create a beautiful focal point, to line an avenue, or to enhance an oriental garden design. It possible to grow them in the smallest of patios and town gardens to the largest of grand designs.
Special features: Mature height of 3-6m and in various shape forms available. They have a sculptural interest to the tree during the winter months and beautiful blossom in Spring. Of course the blossom is beautiful – but also the leaf colours, bright lime greens in summer turning to a beautiful bronze in Autumn and the bark patterns and colours provide interest during the winter months.
Growing tips: Grow in full sun, in any soil type with a neutral PH. Must be moist but well drained.
Arbutus Unedo “Strawberry tree, Killarney Strawberry tree, Irish Strawberry tree Cane Apple”
Why this tree: This attractive evergreen tree has young shoots that are tinged red and harden to dark green. The multiple small white, bell shaped flowers appear in clusters and are produced with the red fruit (similar looking to lychee) in the autumn, providing a luscious display. As this tree matures, the brown bark sheds, giving it a peeling, ragged appearance - a texture is important in all my landscape planting designs. Arbutus is a popular garden tree which was awarded the RHS Award of Garden Merit. I also use the Arbitus Unedo Compacta shrub in planting schemes which cannot accommodate a tree or benefit from species repetition through a border.
Special features: Mature height: 3-7m. The tough evergreen leaves help to make this tree a good choice for exposed and coastal sites. The late flowering of this tree makes it useful for bees in honey production and the fruit also tasty for birds. While the fruit is edible, it doesn’t taste very nice raw but jam is possible.
Growing tips: Arbutus Unedo will tolerate most soil conditions, preferring a moist, well-drained soil and unusually for an ericaceous plant it does tolerate lime. Protect young trees during a harsh winter with fleece as they are tender.
Comments