National Tree Week- Tree Love 29th Nov- 7th Dec

Celebrate ‘Tree Love’ with us at Lime Cross Nursery

Give a Tree to someone you love this Christmas 

• We have over 200 varieties of trees all home-grown at Lime Cross Nursery
• Outstanding range of trees for small gardens
• Our skilled nursery-men have over 40 years of experience producing conifers and trees
• We’re super famous for growing conifers, we have one of the largest collections in Europe, with many rare specimens

Apart from the fact that trees are beautiful, why else should we plant one?

This short video highlights some points

Top Ten Reasons to Love Trees

·         Trees produce oxygen

·         Trees clean the soil

·         Trees control noise pollution

·         Trees slow storm water run-off

·         Trees are carbon sinks

·         Trees clean the air

·         Trees create shade

·         Trees act as wind breaks

·         Trees fight soil erosion

·         Trees increase property value

Vicky joins the British Conifer Society Commitee

Vicky Tate (Co-owner of Lime Cross Nursery) has been elected to join the committee of the British Conifer Society 

 

Anyone who knows Vicky will know that she is a green-fingered earth child at heart and that she has a natural understanding and love of plants, as well as being incredible knowable. We are super proud to announce that Vicky has been elected to join the committee of the British Conifer Society (BCS) , this was formalised last Sunday at the society AGM held at RHS Wisley.

 

Jonathan Tate, Vicky's father was a founding member and former vice-chairman of the BCS, it has therefore remained important for the nursery and family to stay involved. Vicky, Diana and Helen Tate all traveled with the society to Ireland in September, where they toured the pinetums, arboretums and significant gardens of the south west. 

 

 The society is made up of over 100 members consisting of experts, enthusiasts and nursery men from all over the world.Chairman Derek Spicer is author of RHS Encyclopedia of Conifers: A comprehensive guide to cultivars and species 

Matthew Pottage (Garden Manager at RHS Wisley)  is another member of the committee, who is incredibly passionate and knowledgeable about conifers. Matthew has recently created some truly remarkable plantings using conifers mixed with other plant groups at RHS Wisley, where he is in charge of over 150 acres and a team of over 100 people. 

 

One of the societies primary objectives this year is to focus on recruiting new members. The annual joining fee is £20 which covers the cost of the quarterly journal, as well as lectures in London and the opportunity to attend the annual tour, which this year takes place in California.

 

Please contact Vicky by e mail vicky.tate@limecross.co.uk or call 01323 833229 if you are interested in joining. The only requirement is a genuine love of nature and preferably conifers!  

Like the BSC on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/britishconifersociety for their regular updates and to contact them direct.

 The Pinetum at Lime Cross Nursery

‘Conifer Crusader’ Pinus Montezuma Sheffield Park

There stands at Sheffield Park Gardens in East Sussex a 100 year old specimen of Pinus Montezuma Sheffield Park, with a trunk girth of at least 80 cm and height of 15m. 

 Pinus Montezuma Sheffield Park

Back in the 1990s this magnificent conifer was an unexpected source of concern for the National Trust (owners of the gardens), because it was the very last of its kind left on the planet. Like panicked zoo keepers trying to entice reproductively incompetent giant pandas, the horticulture team were struggling to create propagation through seed or grafting. Following several failed attempts they contacted Lime Cross Nursery. Co-founder of the nursery, Jonathan Tate,  who had years of conifer grafting experience, was determined to safeguard this variety’s future. Sure enough through precision, intuition and experimental rootstock selection the problem was cracked. 

Jonathan Tate grafting

Pinus Montezuma Sheffield Park- taken by Marie Stone

Today Lime Cross Nursery are now the proud producers and suppliers of this beautiful specimen, which is almost exclusively available through them. 

Pinus Montezuma Sheffield Park at Lime Cross Nursery

This is written with a heavy heart, as Jonathan Tate sadly passed away just over three months ago, following a 7 year battle with cancer. His natural empathy for plants was unquestionable, and his knowledge was so extensive that potentially we won’t ever be able to appreciate its depth. 

Jonathan Tate watering newly grafted conifers

We live in a world that sometimes feels ubiquitously contaminated with meaninglessness, such as the loss of young life to disease. These paradoxes of human existence leave us feeling perplexed and hollow. The nursery is an explosion of life; colour, scents, and texture, which is mostly due to Jonathan who spent his life cultivating and creating. This, along with this resuscitation of a species to some extent cushions the blow of our loss here at Lime Cross Nursery.