National Tree Week: Head Gardener shares his favourite tree

December 08 2020 | Garden

National Tree Week runs from 21 November to 8 December and Head Gardener Neil Miller shares his favourite tree on the 125 acre Hever Castle estate.

The three week campaign, run by Candide Gardening, aims to encourage everyone to become “tree inspired” by planting more trees and raising awareness of the important part trees play against climate change.

Candide, which holds public records of thousands of plants and trees, is providing free information on its website and app as part of the campaign including what how to plant trees in your garden, which ones to plant and other things to do to support trees.

National Tree Week was launched by tree campaigner Chris Beardshaw and marks the start of the tree planting season.

At Hever Castle visitors can enjoy numerous stunning and historic trees especially during the annual Autumn Colour event but Neil talks about the striking colours of the Ironwood tree which stands near Half Moon Lawn.

The leaves of the tree turn yellow, red and purple in autumn and shown off red flowers in late winter and early spring.

Visitors to Hever Castle during the Christmas event can be impressed with colour washes and different coloured lights in the trees.

Candide has also teamed up with the Community Forest Trust and aims to raise £10,000 to plant 1,000 trees in woodland across England.

They are also encouraging people to purchase virtual Christmas cards to help cut the 1 billion cards sold in the country each year.