IF you are super-rich and impatient— or old and anxious for results—you may wish to plant outsized trees to give your garden an air of instant maturity. You won’t be the first to do so: in about 1470BC, the Pharaoh Hatshepsut sent her ships to bring large trees of frankincense from the horn of Africa to her temple at Deir el-Bahari, across the Nile from Luxor. They survived because they were transported with their rootballs intact and were well-watered until firmly established and growing again.
Those two requirements—minimum root disturbance and attentive aftercare—are still the key to success today. Gardeners are usually told to be patient and plant small trees, because they have a better chance of taking root and getting away happily. Trees grow much faster than most people think, after all. But there is no doubt that mature ones give structure to a garden immediately, so the urge to acquire them for a new garden is understandable. Many are the nurseries offering a service that includes moving, planting and establishing them. Losses have always been inevitable—English oaks, for example, are notoriously difficult to transplant —but the task of a good specialist is to minimise failure.
Tree-planting techniques have improved over the centuries. The roots of trees awaiting transportation were being undercut as early as the 16th century. This enables smaller new roots to develop that will help the tree settle into its new life. When Capability Brown was laying out landscapes in the 18th century, the cost of planting his clumps and shelterbelts with semi-mature trees was generally accepted, at least by his wealthier patrons.
Denne historien er fra February 16, 2022-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra February 16, 2022-utgaven av Country Life UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Save our family farms
IT Tremains to be seen whether the Government will listen to the more than 20,000 farming people who thronged Whitehall in central London on November 19 to protest against changes to inheritance tax that could destroy countless family farms, but the impact of the good-hearted, sombre crowds was immediate and positive.
A very good dog
THE Spanish Pointer (1766–68) by Stubbs, a landmark painting in that it is the artist’s first depiction of a dog, has only been exhibited once in the 250 years since it was painted.
The great astral sneeze
Aurora Borealis, linked to celestial reindeer, firefoxes and assassinations, is one of Nature's most mesmerising, if fickle displays and has made headlines this year. Harry Pearson finds out why
'What a good boy am I'
We think of them as the stuff of childhood, but nursery rhymes such as Little Jack Horner tell tales of decidedly adult carryings-on, discovers Ian Morton
Forever a chorister
The music-and way of living-of the cabaret performer Kit Hesketh-Harvey was rooted in his upbringing as a cathedral chorister, as his sister, Sarah Sands, discovered after his death
Best of British
In this collection of short (5,000-6,000-word) pen portraits, writes the author, 'I wanted to present a number of \"Great British Commanders\" as individuals; not because I am a devotee of the \"great man, or woman, school of history\", but simply because the task is interesting.' It is, and so are Michael Clarke's choices.
Old habits die hard
Once an antique dealer, always an antique dealer, even well into retirement age, as a crop of interesting sales past and future proves
It takes the biscuit
Biscuit tins, with their whimsical shapes and delightful motifs, spark nostalgic memories of grandmother's sweet tea, but they are a remarkably recent invention. Matthew Dennison pays tribute to the ingenious Victorians who devised them
It's always darkest before the dawn
After witnessing a particularly lacklustre and insipid dawn on a leaden November day, John Lewis-Stempel takes solace in the fleeting appearance of a rare black fox and a kestrel in hot pursuit of a pipistrelle bat
Tarrying in the mulberry shade
On a visit to the Gainsborough Museum in Sudbury, Suffolk, in August, I lost my husband for half an hour and began to get nervous. Fortunately, an attendant had spotted him vanishing under the cloak of the old mulberry tree in the garden.