Hazel, Oak & Alder

Cell-grown trees, raised hardy on the hill in Argyll

We currently grow premium quality hazel and oak, with smaller quantities of alder, here on our woodland croft on the Cowal Peninsula, Argyll.

Our trees are raised in the conditions they can expect to meet after planting. We produce hardy, strong, cell grown saplings.

Our propagation cells are deep, encouraging strong root development, and we use the best peat-free growing medium we can source to produce a healthy, well-formed root ball.

Hazel

Hazel is at the heart of what we grow.

A wonderfully useful native tree, it belongs in the woodlands and edges of the west coast and was an integral part of the native diet. It establishes readily, provides valuable habitat and food for wildlife and is a host for internationally important lichens and bryophytes that characterise our Atlantic rainforest.

Oak

We also grow pedunculate oak for native woodland creation, restoration and expansion.

Our young oaks are cell-grown and hardened outside here on the croft before bundling.

Alder

We grow smaller numbers of alder, particularly suited to wetter ground and, as it is unpalatable to deer; it’s suited to places where a robust pioneering native tree is called for.

Availability varies from year to year, so please ask when requesting our current stock list.

Local seed. Local trees.

Our seed is locally collected as a family within Native Seed Zone 106, here in Scotland’s rainforest expansion zone.

Provenance matters to us. These are trees grown from seed gathered in the landscapes they are intended to help restore and expand.

We are registered as a supplier with Forest Reproductive Material (FRM), hold the UK & Ireland Sourced and Grown (UKISG) assurance accreditation; and are authorised to issue UK Plant Passports.

Ordering trees

We are a small nursery, so our scale is considerably smaller than the large commercial nurseries. The quality however, is very good.

We would encourage our customers to order, or raise their intention to order well in advance of the planting season so we can ensure supply,

Please email us for our current availability and price list or to arrange a call.

If you are planning a larger woodland creation or restoration project, we strongly recommend getting in touch and reserving trees well in advance.

Growing good trees takes time, and advance orders allow us to plan seed collecting and propagation around what people actually need.

[EMAIL: LAURA GAMWELL@HOTMAIL.COM]

About the nursery

Growing up on family ground known as Coed a Collwyn, Rhyddian is something of an original nutter and has an enduring passion for trees, woods and their regeneration.

Laura also grew up around woods and trees. Her family were keen foresters, millers and makers of beautiful things from wood, so trees were never simply scenery: they remain an integral part of family life, work, forage and craft.

Following an circuitous apprenticeship with the legend known as Tree Paul, and Alasdair Cunningham at Inverness Trees, we began growing our own cell-grown trees in 2016 at Camas Tuath on the Isle of Mull.

We have been learning and refining the process ever since — improving our growing systems and working out how best to produce robust young trees suited to planting in the west of Scotland.

The nursery is part of the wider work of our woodland croft: growing trees while contributing, in our own small way, to the restoration and expansion of healthy native woodland in Argyll.

Planting woodland?

We are always happy to talk trees.

Email us for current availability, prices and advance orders;

lauragamwell@hotmail.com