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: 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
Megan Jones and Rosie Beetschen share two perspectives on volunteering and restoration in Abernethy Forest
