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Native Species and Uses Hedging Shrubs Planting Trees and Shrubs
Native Species and Uses
There are 33 native species of tree and they are all listed below.
Alder
Height 20m+ - Age 60years+
Use - Clogs, Wood-turning, firewood, charcoal, hardens when immersed in water so good for submerged piles!
Ash
Height 45m+ - Age 200
Use - The wood is strong and elastic and so can be used for a variety of functions e.g. polo and hockey sticks, oars, etc - it is also attractive and used for furniture.
The fire wood is excellent and because its water content when green is only 35% it is one of the few woods one can burn green.
Aspen
Height 20-30m - Age 50years+
Use - The bark can be used for tanning leather, Henry V protected it as it was fantastic for making arrows - perfect for the battle of Agincourt!
Its charcoal is the best for making gunpowder and its leaves are enjoyed by all herbivores. Beavers eat the bark!
Bay Willow
- Height 18m
Beech
Height 40m+ - Age 200+
The wood is excellent firewood/charcoal - it is also used for furniture making - turning etc
The nuts which are prolific every 5-8 years are delicious to eat and the oil can be extracted and used in cooking.
Bird Cherry
Height 15m
Use - Edible berries
Black Poplar
Height 30m
Use - it is not a durable wood and so is useful for pulp, plywood, pallets.
Box
Height 9m
Yellow, hard wood - once highly prized - considered to have medicinal properties!
Crab Apple
Height 16m
Use - Pretty wood for wood turning, firewood
Crab Apple
Crab Apples are sour but make excellent jellies with rowan berries and blackberries. One can also make a potent wine out of the fruit!
Crack Willow
Height 8m - Age 70-80years
Use - good for charcoal making, and because of its softness - children's toys - artificial limbs!
The leaves have salicylic acid in them which is an ingredient in aspirin.
Common Oak
Height 27m+ - Age 200-1000years
Use - Veneer, building timber frames, fencing, firewood and charcoal.
Bark Tannin good for tanning leather.
Acorns useful for fattening pigs!
Wines and spirits were matured in oak casks.
Oak trees are fantastic for nature as they act as host to over 300 species of insect as so are vital for our food chains. They say 'an oak grows for 300 years, rests for 300 years and spends the next 300 years gracefully expiring'!
Downy Birch
Similar to a silver birch but slower growing and short lived.
Field Maple
Height 25m - Age 50-100years
Use - because of its small girth only useful for turning although in the Middle Ages it was used for musical instruments.
Goat Willow
Height 6-15m
Use - useless!!
Hazel
Height 8m - Age 70-80years
Use - Good Coppicing wood, Cask hoops, baskets, walking sticks, hurdles, thatching, spires, and firewood.
Tasty Nuts
Hawthorn
Height 10 - 15m - Age 250years
Use - Because of its heavy, hard qualities, it is good for walking sticks and tool handles. Good firewood.
The red fruit are loved by birds!
Holly
Height 15m+
It is an evergreen tree with a prickly leaf. Because of this feature it is used to decorate houses at christmas. The red berries were known as holy berries because it was used during the religious festivities.
Use - Very dense Creamy white wood is great for carving, turning and firewood.
The branches used to be pollarded for winter feed!
Hornbeam
Height 30m - Age 150years
Use - Good for cog wheels and chopping blocks - very hard and close grained wood!
Birds like the nuts!
Large Leaved Lime
Height 32m
Use - Soft white timber that does not warp once seasoned! Excellent for carving and model making. The bark used to be used for ropes.
Produces lots of nectar for honey bees and flowers can be used to make tea. They are very aromatic.
Juniper
Height 6m
Use - Sapwood aromatic
Berries used to flavour food and gin!
Midland Thorn
Similar to Hawthorn- Height 10m
Rowan
Height 15m+ - Age 100years+
Uses - Wood turning, carving, firewood, bow making
One can make Rowan Jelly out of the berries to eat with game.
Scots Pine
Height 40m+ - Age 150years+
The only native British Pine.
Use - full of preservative resins so it is used outside for fencing, joinery
pitch, tars, resin and turpentine obtained from the wood.
Silver Birch
Height 25m - Age 60years+
Use - Excellent firewood, wood and bark distilled to produce tar to make waterproofing for leather. Bark can be used for canoe skin and is very flammable.
The Silver Birch is prone to a fungus called Taphrina Tugida which causes a witches broom effect in the canopy.
Small Leaved Lime
Height 38m - Age 500years
Uses - Soft white timber that does not warp once seasoned! Excellent for carving and model making. The bark used to be used for ropes.
Produces lots of nectar for honey bees and flowers can be used to make tea.
Strawberry Tree
Height 12m
Red berry looks like a strawberry
Use - The grain on this wood is pink and fine grained.
The berries are edible but not tasty!
Sessile Oak
Height 40m - Age 1000years+
Use - Veneer, building timber frames, fencing, firewood and charcoal.
Bark Tannin good for tanning leather.
Acorns useful for fattening pigs!
Walnut
Height 20-30m
Use - the grain of the wood is dark and beautiful - consequently it is highly sort after for furniture and veneer.
The Nuts are highly calorific - 650cal to 100grams - not only this but they have vitamins B and D in them. The oil is excellent for cooking and walnut liqueur is popular in France.
Because the shelled walnut looks like a brain - it was believed in the past that it cured headaches!
White Willow
Height 16m
Use - Excellent tree to pollard every 5 years - straight stems useful for making poles and for firewood. Useful material for basket making and hurdles.
Whitebeam
Height 20m
Use - hard brown wood which is nice to turn and its fruit are edible so one can make jam or wine!
Wild Cherry
Height 15m - Age 200years
Use - Beautiful reddish brown wood when it it oxidizes. Lovely for furniture making, turning or as a veneer - Moves an enormous amount when drying.
Black berries are edible.
Wild Service Tree
Height 26m
Use - a rare yellowish type of wood that can be used for inlays and turning.
The fruit are used to make a drink called chequers!
Wych Elm
Height 40m - Age 500years
Use - Does not decay when immersed in water so used for coffins, water pipes, troughs and sea defenses.
Yew
Height 15-18m - Age 2000+years
Use - Excellent for making bows - beautiful colouring of wood so it is highly sought after for veneers and furniture. Wonderful for turning with its different colours.
The Yew tree is very poisonous - everything is deadly bar the flesh on the berries - the seed in the berry is poisonous but not the flesh!
Hedging
Mixed Hedgerows
These are so important for wildlife. They act as windbreaks, a food source, a nesting ground, and a shelter for birds, mammals and insects. They take about 3 years to really establish but thereafter they provide a real wildlife haven.
One should really plant hedge plants in a double staggered row with the plants 30cm apart. Mulch, water and trim your hedge regularly.
Excellent plants for native hedgerows include:
- Hawthorn
- Spindle
- Dog Rose
- Blackthorn
- Wayfaring Tree
- Field Rose
- Crab Apple
- Hazel
- Hornbeam
- Alder Buckthorn
- Field Maple
- Sweet Briar
- Wild Briar
Once they establish themselves you can plant honey suckle and wild clematis to draw in butterflies and moths.
Other Popular Climbers
- Campsis
- Clematis Montana
- Hedera hibernica
- Hydrangea petiolaris
- Parthenocissus
- Rhyncospermum jasminoides
- Wisteria chinensis
- Wisteria Floribunda
Shrubs
There are a huge number of shrubs available on the market but here is a list of the more popular ones.
- Acer- Japanese Maple or Red Japanese Maple - large shrub
- Arbutus - Strawberry Tree- an Autumn flowering shrub with white flowers and Strawberry like fruit
- Aucuba - Spotted Laurel - evergreen
- Bamboo - both ornamental and yellow bamboos and black stemmed bamboo usually available - forms a good shield
- Berberis - purple red leaved shrub
- Buxus - common box or Dwarf Box varieties - box hedging is very popular in formal gardens and for topiary
- Camellia - Stunning flowering evergreen - often situated next to a wall.
- Cordyline - small white fragrant flowers on this impressive shrub - likes a sunny location
- Cornus - Red barked and yellow barked dog wood - adds colour with their stems in the winter
- Corylus - Purple leafed Filbert - beautiful purple colour
- Elaeagnus - Evergreen shrub - fragrant autumn flower
- Euonymus - some of the more popular one s are alatus compactus, aponica, japonica elegantissima aurea, japonica compactus
- IIex - Common Holly - Argentea Marginita - Aurea Marginita - Crenata Fastigiata
- Laurus - Common bay Laurel - dense evergreen shrub
- Ligustrum - ionandrum - this is a stem with a ball on the top - Lollypop effect - ovalifolium aureum - golden privet and the texanum
- Magnolia - evergreen magnolia (grandiflora galissoniensis) beautiful white fragrant creamy white cup like flowers
- Soulangiana - Tulip shaped flowers appear before the leaves in the spring
- Mahonia - media charity - flowers during autumn and early winter
- Phormium - you can get the purple, variegated and ordinary New Zealand Flax
- Photinea - Red Robin - evergreen with masses of white flowers in Spring - beautiful
- Prunus - Common Laurel - needs pruned in spring but provides good screen - Portugal Laurel
- Pyracantha - Saphyr Red - prickly evergreen with red berries in autumn
- Quercus ilex - shrub/tree
- Rhododendrum - great screening and flowering species out there - specimen planting is especially popular on the West Coast of Scotland
- Syrenga - vulgaris vila - richly scented flowers in May
- Tamarix - pentandra - pink flowers in summer
- Trachycarpus- chusan palm - fanshaped leaves
- Ulex - common gorse - spiky shub with yellow flowers
- Viburnum - various species - very popular
- Yucca - spanish dagger - architectural shrub - evergreen
Planting Trees and Shrubs
Selection of Tree/Shrubs -I t may seem obvious but choose a tree that fits the site - bear in mind buildings, soil, drainage, exposure, quality of light.
Preparation of the ground - Dig a hole larger than the diameter of the root ball of the tree and break up the soil in the area in which you intend to plant - Add compost, bone meal and the extracted soil to the planted tree and water thoroughly on planting.
Stake - The best thing to do is to put stakes on either side of the tree and tie the tree to the steak by using a tree tie or by adding cross bars.
Tree Protection - It is essential to fit guards against rabbits and deer and if the tree is in a field make sure you put up a significant amount of fencing against damage from livestock.
Weed Control - Remove all weeds a full metre radius around a newly.
planted tree and add bark or mulch to prevent any fresh weeds emerging.
Water - Ensure that you water a tree in its first year every day.
Excellent native trees to plant are all listed under Native Trees