Special Branch Tree Nursery
We started in 1997, to provide a local source for conservation planting. Other suppliers rely on stock raised and transported from distant UK regions or abroad - eg Scotland, Eastern Europe - where the ecology is different. We promote best biodiversity practice, which means using the offspring of local parents.
We grow more than twenty native species which we sell as bare-rooted whips from October to March. See our list of trees here.
We raise native trees and hedgerow shrubs, grown organically from seeds and cuttings collected in Sussex downland and Wealden sites. We're a not-for-profit organisation, run entirely by voluntary workers.
14 years growing and
We raise seedlings until they’re robust enough to plant in permanent local sites: conservation projects, warden-managed nature reserves, allotments, domestic gardens, schools. Mainly, people want plants for hedges.
Each year we follow a cycle...
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★Autumn: gathering seeds and cuttings at selected chalk downland and Wealden sites, processing, stratifying.
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★Winter: maintaining our site, pruning, preparing trees for customers.
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★Spring: planting, transplanting, tending seedlings.
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★Summer: watering, weeding.
What we do
Buy trees from us
Even with 13 years’ success behind us, we still depend entirely on volunteer effort. Each Friday through the year we work on our beautiful, sunny site overlooking the woods of Stanmer Park. For more on volunteering, see this page.
Come up and see us! Find out more.
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Join us as a volunteer?
We develop wildlife habitats on site, and experiment and refine our organic growing methods. We're part of Stanmer Organics Ltd, a co-op registered with The Soil Association.
selling locally-sourced
trees
www.specialbranchtrees.org.uk