25 Years Of... Nurturing Green Spaces | Arboretum at 25

From a muddy gravel pit to the blossoming young Arboretum of today, a lot has changed within our 150-acre woodland site over the last 25 years.

Historic image of the Allied Special Forces Memorial Grove captured in 2004

The Early Years

The first trees were planted at the Arboretum in 1997, funded using a grant from the National Forest.

Today, all of the native tree species found in the United Kingdom can be found at the Arboretum, including a number of disease-resistant Elms.

London Plane

Owing to their association with London, this tree was selected to be planted along the Mall, the avenue for the Guards, which consists of plane trees alternating with cherry trees.

Horse Chestnut

Along with London Plane trees you will also see Horse Chestnut trees along The Beat. They were chosen because the fist truncheons were made from this very durable wood.

Hornbeam

You’ll find hornbeam trees in a number of locations at the Arboretum including in the Western Front Woodland. The only tree left in Delville Wood in the Somme area after the destruction caused be the shelling and fighting was a hornbeam tree.

Symbolism

Many of the trees planted in our woodlands were selected due to their symbolic properties. For example, the Adjutant General's Corps commemorative garden is based on a concept representing Winchester Cathedral. The trees represent the portals of the west face of the Cathedral, the pillars either side of the main aisle and the high screen.

The six conifer trees in the Shot at Dawn Memorial represent the firing squad aiming for the target around the statue’s neck. Behind the statue there are 309 posts bearing the names of soldiers that were shot, later pardoned, and are now remembered at the Arboretum.

The Queen Alexandra's Royal Naval Nursing Service Memorial features Rowan trees. The berries from these 'healing' trees are used for medicinal purposes and its wood was used to make handles for stretchers during the First World War.

National Collections

In November 2024, the Arboretum was awarded our first-ever ‘National Plant Collection’ status by Plant Heritage for our conservation work on Hamamelis (Witch Hazel).

Even before we received the first 15 saplings in December 2020, it had long been a passion and ambition of our Head of Estates to create a nationally recognised collection of Hamamelis at the Arboretum. The team worked closely with Chris Lane, one of the UK’s foremost horticulturists and cultivator of one of the UK’s three other collections of Hamamelis, who supplied many of the specimens and helped to develop the collection at the Arboretum.

This new Full National Collection status helps secure the future of the Hamamelis as a genus and enhances the Arboretum’s standing as a key centre of horticultural excellence and biodiversity.

You can see the see the vibrant yellow, red and orange blossoms of over 300 Hamamelis in our collection when they flower between December and February each year.

Young Amalanchier saplings line the sides of the Arboretum's Amalanchier Walk

As an Arboretum, maintaining a green environment is something we care passionately about.

We know we aren’t perfect yet, but as an organisation we:

Have solar panels supplementing our Remembrance Centre power generation
Choose better materials; including ethically sourced, Fairtrade or FSC marked products wherever possible, including within our buildings
Use electric buggies on site, as well as an electric Land Train and many pieces of electric grounds equipment
Use PIR lighting to preserve electricity
Create habitats for wildlife including our wildlife meadow and bee hives
Recycle grounds materials where possible to make pathways to dress gardens or make compost
Offer seasonal and cook to order menus to help reduce food waste
Use herbs grown in our own onsite herb garden in the Restaurant

A cup of coffee in a large mug, sits in front of a plate of cupcakes within the arboretum coffee shop. The coffee machine is in the background.

Plastic reduction in operation:

Where possible, all drinks are served with glassware, and for those that aren't we offer 100% compostable takeaway coffee cups and lids, that are composted on site. Only paper straws are available in our restaurant and coffee shop, and we have on site purification and carbonation of water, reducing plastic bottle usage and reducing distribution miles. Our shop uses a range of recyclable paper wrapping and bags, as well as selling re-useable shopping bags.

Re-elming the British Countryside

On 27 November 2019, timed to coincide with National Tree Week, experts from the horticultural industry gathered at the Arboretum to witness as a stand of 20 disease-resistant elms were planted in our grounds.

The campaign, spear headed by Hillier Trees, follows on from the devastating loss of almost the entire UK Population of elms to Dutch Elm Disease in the 1960s, more than 30 million trees. Hillier Trees has been working in partnership with specialist elm breeders in the USA and Europe for decades in order to develop a new, disease-resistant elm species.

These trees can be found to the rear of the Royal British Legion Poppy Field.

No Mow May

There is usually a dearth of forage around the end of May, known as the 'June gap', so each May we join many other organisations and gardeners for #NoMowMay.

‘No Mow May’ is also good for the bees in the hives near the Royal British Legion Poppy Field, kept by Master Beekeeper Stuart Roberts who has kept bees here since 2011.

There are four honey producing colonies at the Arboretum and usually a couple of small colonies called nucleus colonies or 'nukes'. The bees gather a wide variety of nectar and pollen from the different plant and tree species across the Arboretum, as well as foraging on nearby oil seed rape and field bean crops.