Follow the changing year at the Cairngorms Connect Tree Nursery
Learn more about the Tree Nursery here, and make sure you sign up to our newsletter to hear about volunteering opportunities
Weather: Heatwave! Activity: Inspecting Willows
The recent warm spell has meant the CC tree nursery team has been closely watching our stand of Downy Willows as they prepare to seed.
When ready, the seed is harvested to sow and grow the next generation for planting out at high elevation.
But this post isn't really about the willows.....
During todays inspection we came across this huge Emperor Moth. It's usually butterflies that we start to see fluttering around the tree nursery so this guy was a truly wonderful surprise.
- Lynn
Weather: Sunny and warm! Activity: Weeding
The pollinators are out doing a job on our downy willow seed stand. We’ve grown these trees from wild cuttings and seed, and will collect seed from them probably in May. Some will get sown and the rest will be stored for the following year
- David
----
As we were tidying up after another successful volunteer session, we spent a few minutes watching a mother weasel.
She was darting back and forth through the tall grass at the base of a large Scots Pine that stands at the edge of our tree nursery.
She eventually appeared with a baby weasel in her mouth which we think she was moving to a new nest site. This is something mother weasels often do to reduce chances of nest predation.
We hope she doesn't go too far. Weasels do a great job of keeping our vole population in check which helps us in successfully growing more trees.
- Lynn
Weather: Sunny with blue skies Activity: Planting trees and sowing seeds
What a difference a week makes! From thick lying snow last week to warm spring days. Our planting contractors have been out in all weathers planting downy birch, alder, hazel and a mix of willow species to restore our upland woodland.
- David
It always amazes us how quickly willow seed germinates. These were sown on Friday and looked like this the following Monday. We used seed stored in a freezer since last summer. Relieved that it survived a week long power cut over winter!
- David
Weather: warm and dry! Activity: moving Willows
It’s a beautiful spring day and the buds are away to burst. We’re moving more willows out of the nursery and into a separate stand, from which we’ll take cuttings to produce more trees.
- David
Weather: mild, occasional sun! Activity: transplanting seedlings
We’re using this mild weather as an opportunity to prick out overwintered seed trays. These ones are downy willow that we just ran out of time to do last summer.
We find that birch doesn’t do very well if it stays in the seed trays for more than a few months, but willows can be quite successful. Many of these seedlings will be ready to plant out by late summer.
- David
Weather: cold but bright Activity: moving trees
Winter is the time for moving bare root trees (as long as the ground’s not frozen or covered in 3 feet of snow!)
Right now we’re consolidating our downy willow specimens into a single seed stand. Having started with fewer than 30 genetic individuals, we now have around 150 locally sourced plants that we can use as seed and cutting sources.
This ensures that we’re planting out a genetically diverse mix, all of Cairngorms origin.
- David
----------------------------
Learn more about the Tree Nursery here, and make sure you sign up to our newsletter to hear about volunteering opportunities
We join a Twinflower survey to see the vital work being carried out to help this beautiful and rare flower
