Bedgebury National Pinetum sits on an undulating slice of land at the northern edge of Bedgebury Forest in the High Weald AONB in Kent. Owned and managed by Forestry England, the National Pinetum’s remit is species conservation, scientific advancement and furthering the public’s understanding and knowledge of conifers. We found out more during a recent visit.
WALKING in a Grade-II listed arboretum is a good way to experience winter colours. That it contains (approximately) 12,000 ornamental, threatened and historically important species and plantings, illustrating some of the 630 genera held in this most complete collection of temperate conifer species anywhere in the world, is a bonus.
Most visits, 600,000 a year at last count, begin (or end) at the Visitor Centre, café and lake, built in 2005. There is plenty of lakeside seating from which to enjoy tranquil watery views, while considering what the site offers: a visit to the Natural Play Trail and other activities; paths on which to jog or walk a dog; raised beds of ‘dwarf and slow-growing conifers’ to inspire the gardening enthusiast; a hike into Bedgebury Forest, or a meander along the shorter ‘Wonderful World of Conifers’ walking trail that begins in Redwood Glade (P1935).
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Three Climatic Growth Zones: Temperate (plentiful rainfall, cool winters and warm summers); Tropical and Subtropical (humid); Boreal (taiga) (northern, cold winters, mild to hot summers)
This particular walk is highly unusual in that it begins at the Forestry England (FE) offices on a hill at the far end of Dallimore Valley, with curator Dan Luscombe, who has agreed to host a ‘walk and talk’.
Before the Forestry Commission (FC) took ownership, this site was an estate privately owned by the Beresford family. Wanting to move their conifer collection beyond the polluted air of south-west London, RBG Kew partnered with the FC to create a new National Pinetum here.
In 1925, William Dallimore (Kew employee and Bedgebury’s first curator) began planting trees grown from seed at Kew (some being the progeny of seeds collected by plant hunters such as Ernest Wilson and George Forest) and from well-regarded nurseries (Hilliers), in taxonomic groups (grouping similar trees together) to facilitate professional scientific study.
In 1965, Kew moved to Wakehurst and the partnership ended, although close ties remain through their work with storing seeds for long-term conservation with the Millennium Seed Bank. Bedgebury is also a key partner in the Global Trees Campaign (run by Fauna & Flora International and Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI)), contributes to the International Conifer Conservation Programme (ICCP) run by the Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh, and works alongside Oxford University Botanic Gardens and more.
Importance: Conifers constitute almost 40 per cent of global forest cover and form the largest terrestrial carbon sink
Today, the 141-hectare Pinetum accommodates several habitats: ornamental landscaped plantings (70 per cent conifer and 30 per cent broadleaf), woodland, heathland, acid grassland and mown meadows (40 per cent open space). Natural springs, streams, six ponds and manmade lakes flow into the River Rother or River Medway.
One of eleven Bedgebury Tree Team staff members on site, Dan, 47, studied a National Trust Horticulture Apprenticeship followed by an HND in Horticulture from Bicton College, latterly working in Bicton Gardens. Joining Bedgebury in 2000, he worked on the tools, in the nursery, as assistant curator and plant hunter, becoming curator in 2016. He still finds it hard to believe.
Conservation: “Conservation is not the numbers of trees or species held in a collection; it is about preserving genetic diversity”
We start in the Research/Trial Plots behind the FE offices. In 1929, 250 0.25-acre plots were planted with a variety of conifers and broadleaves to assess their forestry species potential. Following the 1987 storm, which flattened a third of the pinetum, the opportunity was taken to replant these research monocultures geographically, “imitating forests with species groupings as they are seen in the wild”.
Nowadays, this area is known as the ‘Bedgebury Conifer Conservation Programme’ and is a living gene bank for endangered species, like the monkey puzzle (18 species known globally) which cannot be grown from seed.
In the ‘Europe’ area, remnants of estate and trail plantings – Nordmann fir, dawn redwood, Appalachian birch, poplar and Southern beech – live on as edge trees and their decline is being managed. Mature oaks and Scots pine left from timber quality trials whose provenance is from warmer climates are also being kept.
Sitka Spruce: Bedgebury was one of three host sites that in trials found Sitka spruce to be a good forestry tree species
Meadows support spacious plantings of young Spanish fir (endangered) and Serbian spruce (silvery blue), maple and Slovakian wild crop apple trees (for pollination and colour). All have been grown from wild seed collected by Dan.
Current Research Projects: The Forest Research ‘Windy Ridge Project’ is considering Mediterranean firs (Spanish fir and provenances of European silver fir), Bhutan pine, cypress and Sequoiadendron for future drought-tolerant forestry trees
Across boggy areas cleared of bracken, leaky dams and hay bales are being installed, to capture silt before it flows into the nearby rivers. A ride-side reptile monitoring station reveals no lizards or grass snakes.
In ‘South America’, tall monkey puzzles (P1940) grow a ride away from youngsters grown from threatened but genetically diverse Chilean coastal populations. “We cannot store monkey puzzle seed because there is a lot of material we cannot dry, so we need a living collection.” In some places, they are protected by two layers of fencing, the resident rabbit population having been replaced by three types of deer.
In ‘Australia’, a short, layered eucalyptus has died from leaf-scorch. “This informs us of what does not do so well. The onsite weather station will tell us how cold it was.”
Conversely, lanky, fast-growing evergreen eucalyptus (two species collected in 2004/2008) planted in UK Short Rotation Forestry trials are doing well. They shelter species endemic to Tasmania; a young King Billy pine, a young celerytop pine, a species known to regenerate well in fire zones unlike the small endangered South Esk pine, now outcompeted in the wild by gorse. “There are around 4,000 left in Victoria and Tasmania.
“There is an island, New Caledonia (Pacific), with 43 conifer species, including the world’s only parasitic conifer Parasitaxus usta (Podocarp family, parasitic on another conifer) and 13 species of monkey puzzle that grow nowhere else in the world. With threatened conifers, we grow lots – 500, not two or three – collecting from across the species’ growing range to conserve as much genetic diversity as possible. The parasitic conifer is not conserved here, because no-one knows how to propagate it.”
Biosecure: Plant material collected abroad is brought into the UK as seed and sent off to be X-rayed at Alice Holt
Through the forestry yard and over a biosecurity footwash mat, Bedgebury’s nursery is a series of small, sheltered yards and greenhouses, one being mysteriously painted white, hiding a project that will be revealed in October. The nursery, which Dan likens to a rare breeds farm, grows up to 2,000 trees (and shrubs) a year, rare and endangered plants that are threatened for a variety of reasons. These trees may be grown from cuttings taken from trees declining in the arboretum or from seed brought back from abroad.
They are grown for conservation and education, for forestry and timber, or are cultivars for aesthetic purposes.
Rare: In the wild or in cultivation
Rare in the wild, the Sicilian fir is being propagated. “There are 29 in the world and we were gifted some in 2005 from Sicily.” Four enthusiastic Wollemi pines (Australia) are seemingly socialising with sedate golden Vietnamese cypress grown from seed brought back in 2009. “Discovered in 1999, they live high up on inaccessible ridges in North Vietnam. There are (about) 400 in the wild. These are the first to be bred ex-situ (off-site) in captivity anywhere in the world.”
Rare in cultivation, the Chinese silver fir growing in air-pruning pots sprouted from seed taken from the first tree to ever set seed in Britain. It took just ten years, the tree having been given to Bedgebury by the ICCP.
The Japanese red cedars are destined for ornamental-style pinetum plantings, part of further timber species trials.
Basic Naming: Ending in ‘ii’, a plant is named after a person. Ending in ‘ensis’, a plant is from somewhere
A pot containing some very young Abies mariessi (Japanese) grows near individual pots of Pinus massoniana (Taiwanese). Neither rare nor threatened, each still has purpose.
“The pine is being grown for planting on Windy Ridge for Forest Research. The Abies might be grown up there, but will be planted in the pinetum.”
Plant hunting: “Plant hunting is about provenance or the diversity behind a species, which helps climate matching, conservation, forestry or selecting trees for different uses, e.g. street trees”
Landowner permissions pending, Dan’s next collecting trip is to Japan (with Oxford University Arboretum) to help conserve the endangered Japanese Douglas fir. “We can advise on propagation or pest and disease if that is what it is suffering from. Whatever we grow, we record what we do, whether it grows or fails. We have grown many types of Douglas fir, so we can try all methods.”
He would like to visit Mexico during Monarch butterfly season. “Mountainous and between two continents, Mexico has one of the highest diversities of conifers in the world.”
National Collections: Bedgebury holds national collections of Chamaecyparis lawsoniana (Lawson cypress), Cryptomeria japonica (Japanese red cedar), X Cupressocyparis leylandii cultivars (Leylandii), Juniperus (juniper), Taxus (yew), and heritage cultivars of Thuja (cypress family)
A gate opens onto an ornamental landscaped hillside 200 yards from the bridge over Marshall’s Lake. The hammer of a woodpecker reverberates through a mix of crowns, youthful, mature, bulbous, conical, droopy and shaggy, in shades of light and dark green, or tinged orange or blue. “We are trying to engage audiences and show that conifers are not all ‘green and boring’!”
In addition to plant hunting and managing the day-to-day site and arb works, Dan designs the ornamental landscape, what trees come out, what goes in and where, informed by climate-matching tools to ensure they thrive in 100 years’ time. “We don’t have the staff or resources to grow everything, so we are selective. This site is managed for everything – wildlife, plants and people. The diversity of habitats goes back to managing the trees, created by having an arboretum rather than just a forest.” He must also ensure resources are available to manage whatever flows or flies Bedgebury’s way.
“There is no point in spending money planting Wollemi pines for the future if they are susceptible to something now.”
Last year’s Plant Health Inspection Survey revealed Neonectria neomacrospora in the firs (Abies). Bedgebury’s spruce suffers from aphids. Ips typographus is on the doorstep in Bedgebury Forest. “With (probably) the largest collection of spruce on the planet, we have to be on it, surveying regularly and removing any weakened trees. Looking at susceptibility and resistance is where we are finding our role.”
Endangered: Conifers are the third-largest group of flora and fauna under threat (IUCN Red List of threatened species).
A Sicilian fir shoots up amid the heather on the slope behind Marshall’s Lake bridge. The statuesque Wellingtonia, Douglas fir, Leylandii, Scots pine and droopy lakeside swamp cypress were exotics at the time of planting by the Beresford family in the 1870s.
From the bridge, the firm and well-maintained path touches the aptly named Reflection Lake. Stream-fed, a mostly still reflection is courtesy of a large drain that takes the water downstream to the Great Lake (beyond the pinetum’s borders).
Almost every tree or shrub has an educational arboreal story behind it and Dan’s encyclopedic knowledge spans continents and centuries. An example: “Fitzroya cupressoides, the largest tree species in South America, is named after (Vice-Admiral) Robert FitzRoy who sailed the Beagle and Charles Darwin around South America. FitzRoy also invented modern-day weather forecasting. At 3,600 years old, a Fitzroya cupressoides (alerce or Patagonian cypress) found in Chile is the second-oldest tree known. One of the most durable timbers, it is on the CITES list and cannot be exported without special permission.”
Threats: Human activity (overharvesting for timber and increase in fires due to human activity), climate change, pests and disease
Some plantings are simply awe-inspiring, like a hidden gem near the plot of ex-farmland purchased by Bedgebury in 1993. Now 30 metres high, an avenue of Leylandii (P1970) is not highlighted on the Walking Trail Map. “They are one of the most hated trees, but in here people are awestruck. It illustrates that trees can provoke different feelings. If a visitor finds it, they find it. Were we to highlight them, they would be dead within a year from wear, tear and compaction.”
Extinction: Around 34 per cent of conifers, or 211 species, are in danger of extinction
From the Walled Garden, across the field to the viewpoint, we can see up (the main ride) Hill’s Avenue and most of the length of Dallimore Valley. Pre-pandemic, the field hosted concerts; now it is designated for planting.
Scots pine shelters new plantings from harsh south-westerly winds on the slope visible from the Visitor Centre. Dan planned out and planted them for seasonal interest, colours, shapes and textures. He can name nearly all without referring to the identification tags.
“This ten-year-old Amentotaxus [a small 2–15-metre-high tree from China and Vietnam] is probably the rarest conifer in cultivation in this country. It has stomata (white banding on underside), effectively a leafed conifer.”
He continues: “Wollemi pine; Chinese silver fir; contorted larch; golden Vietnamese cypress (the first planting raised from seed grown here): Juniperus bermudiana (critically endangered in the wild and as rare as it gets); undiseased Lawson cypress ‘Filip’s Golden Tears’ (good for gardens, narrow, nice colour and form); Cryptomeria japonica ‘Elegans’ (Japanese red cedar; the colder it is, the more colourful the juvenile foliage). Spanish fir (nice shape, nice colour, brought back from Spain in 2004); Hickory (pecan) seed.”
The walk ends at the Visitor Centre, looking across the lake to the slope, where Dan concludes: “Each tree has its own space to shine in the bigger landscape. That is why I think I am very lucky. I got here in 2000 when none of this was here and I was counting stumps where the lake bed is now.”
Pinetum: (pronounced pie-nee-tum), latin for pine grove; an arboretum containing a scientific collection of living pines and coniferous trees and shrubs.
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