Sidmouth Arboretum

Caring for the trees of the Sid Valley

Foxglove Tree at Hunters Moon

Early November Sid Vale Association walk, led by Liz Cotton, called in on Hunters Moon Hotel to view their foxglove tree  (Paulownia).

Although the leaves were dropping, the flower buds were visible – ready for magnificent show next May.

MORE PLANTING

Members of Sidmouth Arboretum and the EDDC Parks Improvement Team planted two more trees this morning, an Apricot in Blackmore Gardens and a Midland Hawthorn in the Peace Garden of the Dissenter's Chapel.

Monkey Puzzle Planting

We have planted two Monkey Puzzle Trees (Araucaria araucana) in Knowle Park in Station Road.  The trees were sponsored by the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust, thank you to Tina Day for the referral.  The trees are part of the Arboretum's plan to plant trees with links to the fossil records of Jurassic and Triassic times.

STORM DAMAGE

The large Monterey Pine 1102 in the gardens of Knowle in Station Road lost two of its large branches in a storm during the night of 20th December.  One break was at the point where an epiphytic rhododendron was rooted in the branch which caused a weakness.  EDDC tree officers think they may have to reduce the large branch on the other side of the tree to reduce stress, but they think the main trunk and crown of the tree will go on for years.

TREE PLANTING 05-12-18

Planting in the gardens at Knowle, including an Amelanchier x grandiflora 'Princess Diana' to celebrate the contribution made to the Arboretum over many years by our President, Diana East.  The weather was awful, but that didn't daunt us.  We also planted a Sorbus aucuparia donated by Ed and Jane Dolphin and a Pinus radiata that was rescued from a garden in Cliff Road before it could fall into the sea.

CELEBRATION OF TREES 2018

Sidmouth Arboretum held its annual Celebration of Trees at Kennaway House on 30th November.  A large crowd attended to hear guest speakers talking on a range of topics, see displays from various organisations, hear good singing and story telling, and just chat about trees.  The bar was open, there was a quiz, great to see the young people displaying good knowledge, and a free buffet.  All in all it was a fantastic evening.

Core Hill Walk

A damp, murky day in November but spirits were lifted by a walk in the woods on Core Hill led by the Woodland Trust's Jill Butler who has a good knowledge of ancient trees.  Several candidates for the Trust's register were identified.

TREE DRESSING 2018

Tree Charter Day 2018 was marked with a tree dressing in the churchyard of Sidmouth Parish Church today.  A group of volunteers from Sidmouth Arboretum decorated one of the yew trees in the churchyard of St Giles and St Nicholas Church.

Labelling

We have started labelling trees in The Knowle. There are 92 trees to label in The Knowle and 24 in Sidholme. This is an exciting new project for the arboretum, enabling people to identify the tree and get additional information from our website via the QR code. We will be labelling significant trees along our 3 walks when finance allows. 

Festivals

The arboretum attended both Sea Fest and the Science Festival which enabled us to meet more people and talk about the importance of trees. 

Schools Activities

After pupils from St Johns visited Sidholme for their tree identification exercise, we received an invitation to add the trees in St Johns school grounds to the Sidmouth Arboretum database and to work with the children to establish the heights of the trees. 

BLACKMORE FRUIT TREES

TREE LABELS

As part of the Arboretum's remit to inform and engage the public, we are attaching labels to many publicly accessible trees in the valley.  Each labels tells you the scientific and common name for the tree, but it also includes a QR code.  A QR code is like a super barcode, it contains information about a link to the Arboretum website page for that particular tree.  The code can be scanned with a smartphone app with data access and the link is made to the website with information about the particular tree and further links to wider information about the tree species from organisations such as the Woodland Trust, Forestry Commission and Royal Horticultural Society.

Schools Activities

Tree week April 16th -April 21st

Great Oaks and Little Acorns by Ed Dolphin

TREE WEEK

MEET THE TREES

Salcombe Regis Tree Walk 16th April 2018

A Jolly band of tree afficionados essayed the Salcombe Regis Tree Walk, ably led by Jon Ball

Tips for April and May

After the cold, wet weather at the end of February, any new planting in March will have had a set back, so check the stakes and ties on trees, and check shrubs for wind rock when the gales of March, if they arrive, have shaken the roots of the shrub. It is usually sufficient to firm the soil with your boot.

Hedges can be shaped and made bushier by taking secateurs to the middle twigs, this should encourage new shoots to fill the middle of a hedge. Late flowering shrubs such as buddleia and hydrangea can be pruned back, hard in the case of buddleia and for hydrangea take out a few of the older stems to ground level and prune back the tips to a strong pair of buds to keep a tidy shape.

The excitement of spring is blossom: apples and pears should lighten our days, and of course hawthorn will blossom in May. To get the best from your fruit trees check out Thornhayes Nursery
www.thornhayes-nursery.co.uk/index.php?page=tree-advice
and
www.rhs.org.uk/plants/trees
for pruning guide lines and local courses and for planning your autumn planting now!
Diana East

'Step change' needed to create more woodland

A parliamentary report shows (see BBC report) that planting woodland is not happening fast enough to meet the target of 12% woodland cover 2060.
Jon Ball

We need to plant more trees.

BBC Countryfile devoted much of its episode on Sunday 2nd April to the state of commercial forestry.  The general trend of the coverage was that the UK needs to be planting far more trees than we have in the last few years.  If you missed it then you catch up on the BBC iPlayer.
Ed Dolphin

SCHOOL EVENT at SIDHOLME

Building on the routing of the Sidmouth arboretum town walk through Sidholme, we were able to secure the use of Sidholme's grounds and the music room to set up a tree identification challenge for the children of year 5 at Sidmouth School. Ed Dolphin our treasurer designed the task, which posed a series of yes/ no questions to the children enabling them to identify 8 trees. The weather was lovely and the walk to and from the school gave us a further opportunity to discuss other trees along the route. All in all this was a very successful day for which many thanks to the staff of Sidholme who made us so welcome.

We have been doing more work in Sidholme and have identified 24 species of trees that we hope to make into a leaflet for the site alone. This is being done in conjunction with the The Friends of Sidholme Garden and Sidmouth in Bloom.    Tree identification achieved excellent results and the event is likely to be repeated next spring.

Diana East