Woodland creation and the benefits of nature-based solutions are not new topics for the Forest Carbon blog! We regularly share updates from the woodland projects we support through Woodland Carbon Code certification and our Nature+ programme, but before a woodland can begin its journey to deliver environmental benefits, an important question remains: where does the tree planting process actually start?
For many woodland creation projects in the UK, that journey begins in the tree nursery. Nurseries play a crucial part in the process - but their role is about more than simply growing trees. From seed collection and provenance to species selection and variety of growing methods, decisions made at this early stage can help give trees the best possible start in their eventual planting environment. Every project is different, and factors including location, soil, management objectives, species mix and future climate risks all influence which trees are suitable. As climate conditions change and pest and disease threats continue to evolve, producing healthy, resilient planting stock is becoming increasingly important.
Behind this work is a diverse nursery sector, with a vast variety of organisations operating at different scales and using different practices across the UK. To shine a light on this often unseen part of the woodland creation process, we spoke to four Scottish tree nurseries about their work and the role they play in preparing trees for life beyond the nursery. Together, their experiences offer an insight into the care, knowledge, and expertise that goes into woodland creation projects long before trees are planted.
Cheviot Trees, Scottish Borders
What role do nurseries like Cheviot Trees play in the success of new woodland creation?
Before a single spade hits the ground, years of effort have already gone into preparing those trees. As pioneers in cell-grown plant production, Cheviot Trees combine nearly 40 years of forestry experience with cutting-edge technology and skilled teams, from agronomists to logistics experts.
The journey from seed collection and specialised dormancy treatments through to dispatch can take up to 5 years. This careful preparation helps ensure every sapling is resilient enough to establish and thrive in its final location.
(c) Cheviot Trees
How is technology and sustainability shaping modern tree production?
We use robotics and automation to handle heavy, repetitive tasks, allowing our specialists to focus on crop care. Sustainability is also built into every step of the process. Our cell-grown plants are 100% peat-free, and we have significantly reduced synthetic plant protection by using natural biological controls - like introducing ladybirds to help manage aphid populations organically.
Why is the choice of planting stock and seed origin so critical?
High-quality, cell-grown stock with robust root systems gives saplings the resilience needed to overcome planting shock. Beyond strong roots, seed origin is key.
We go beyond the phrase “right tree, right place" to advocate for "right tree, right seed source, right place." Matching the genetic origin of a seed to its target environment dramatically improves long-term survival and establishment.
(c) Cheviot Trees
How are nurseries adapting to climate change for future forests?
We plan decades ahead by integrating climate-resilient species and more southerly seed sources. For example, alongside traditional Common Beech (Fagus sylvatica), we now cultivate Oriental Beech (Fagus orientalis), which offers greater resistance to hotter, drier summers.
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Southern seed sources can be better adapted to increasing temperatures because they have evolved in warmer climates.
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How do you measure the real-world success of your stock?
We regularly visit planting sites across one-, three-, five-, and ten-year intervals. This ongoing monitoring provides an invaluable real-world experiment, allowing us to see how different seed origins and climate-resilient species perform over time, feeding directly back into our future crop planning.
(c) Cheviot Trees
Alba Trees, East Lothian
What does a typical day at Alba Trees look like?
No two days at Alba Trees are ever quite the same, and that's one of the things that makes the work so rewarding. Our year follows the natural rhythm of the seasons, so activities change throughout the year. We may be processing seed, sowing new crops, monitoring germination, managing irrigation, controlling weeds, grading young trees or preparing orders for our customers.
Behind the scenes, there's also a huge amount of planning involved. Growing high-quality trees takes time, so we're constantly looking ahead, monitoring crop health and forecasting future demand to ensure we can supply the right trees, in the right quantities, when they're needed.
(c) Alba Trees
What is the most exciting or rewarding part of the tree nursery process?
One of the most rewarding aspects is seeing the complete journey from seed to a healthy young tree ready to be planted. Every tree we grow has the potential to become part of a woodland that will benefit people, wildlife, and the environment for generations.
Knowing that the work we do today will help create resilient woodlands, improve biodiversity, store carbon and support future landscapes gives a real sense of purpose. It's rewarding to know that the quality and care invested in every tree can have an impact that lasts for decades.
Why is high-quality planting stock so important for the long-term success of woodland creation projects?
Successful woodland creation starts long before the trees reach the planting site. High-quality planting stock establishes more quickly, copes better with environmental stresses and achieves higher survival rates.
At Alba Trees, we focus on producing healthy, well-grown trees with strong root systems because good establishment is the foundation of a successful woodland. Investing in quality planting stock can help reduce the need for replacement planting, improve long-term woodland resilience and ultimately provide better value for woodland owners and environmental projects.
How is climate change influencing how tree nurseries plan for the future?
Climate change is influencing almost every aspect of tree production. More variable weather patterns, hotter summers and changing rainfall all affect how we manage irrigation, crop health and nursery operations.
It's also changing the way we think about the future. We're placing increasing emphasis on species diversity, seed provenance and growing trees that are well suited to future climates. Building resilience into the nursery today helps ensure the woodlands planted over the coming decades are better equipped to adapt to future environmental challenges.
Is there a tree species you think deserves more attention, and why?
Rather than highlighting a single species, we'd encourage greater emphasis on diversity. Creating resilient woodlands means planting the right mix of species for the site, rather than relying too heavily on just a few familiar favourites.
The right planting scheme makes valuable contributions to biodiversity, supporting a wide range of wildlife. Diverse woodlands are generally better able to cope with pests, diseases and the changing climate.
Our trees are the starting point for successful woodlands. While the planting itself often receives the attention, years of careful planning, propagation and husbandry take place before a tree ever reaches the field. Producing healthy, resilient planting stock is a long-term investment in the future of our woodlands, and we're proud to play our part in that journey.
(c) Alba Trees
Darroch Nurseries, West Lothian
Can you tell us a little about Darroch Nurseries and your approach to growing trees?
Darroch Nurseries was founded in 2021, with the relationship between people, the land and the health and wellbeing of both central to our principles. We started as a social enterprise and are now a registered charity, and we place a strong emphasis on involving people in the tree growing process.
We also inherently think about trees in the long-term term. We use the idea of a “granny tree” – a tree that will grow beyond the lifetime of the person who planted it and provide benefits for generations to come. For us, that means thinking about resilience into the future rather than just the next few years.
(c) Doug Shapley
What does a typical day at the nursery look like?
Our work is highly dependent on the seasons. Autumn, primarily around September, is dedicated to collecting tree seeds from most of our native species across Scotland. Winter months are focused on processing seed and bagging trees for planting. Spring and summer, specifically from April through June, are the busiest periods for sowing and transplanting.
There is a real joy in that cyclical rhythm. We collect all of our own seed, so much of our autumn work takes place out in woodlands, connecting directly with the landscape. As we like to say, we've met the mothers of the trees we grow.
Seed collection builds a deep connection with the places where we're working and gives us a much richer understanding of the landscape around us. The whole process then ebbs and flows with the seasons.
How important is the community aspect of the nursery?
People are central to the whole nursery cycle, and we encourage everyone to be involved in the process. Our Living Classroom gives people the opportunity to learn about growing and planting trees and develop a connection with nature through hands-on, skills-based experiences.
We've seen this create a real closed-loop impact. For example, trees grown from seeds collected by local volunteers in West Lothian are now ready to be replanted into a new community wood in the local community. People have been involved from collecting the seed through to seeing those trees return to the landscape.
For us, the nursery isn't simply somewhere trees are grown. It's a place where people can experience and connect with each other as well as the many tree lives we steward, finding refuge from the craziness of the world and do something that will make a long-term difference.
What's the most exciting or rewarding part of the tree nursery process?
It's witnessing the entire life cycle of a tree – from a tiny seed to a sapling that will eventually become a “granny tree”, lasting beyond our own lifetime.
Every single tree that grows from seed is on a journey, and being able to facilitate that process is incredibly rewarding. There is something very powerful about contributing to something beyond yourself, while also inviting others into that process.
How is climate change influencing the way tree nurseries plan for the future?
Climate change isn't something far away in the future for us – we're on the coalface and experiencing it now. Environmental stress events can affect tree reproduction, the health of parent trees and the viability of the seed we collect. A species such as Rowan, for example, may produce an abundance of berries, but the resulting seed can have poor viability or not contain seeds at all.
We're also seeing more extreme and less predictable weather during the growing season, making germination, growth and disease control more challenging, alongside increasing pressure on water availability during hotter, drier summers.
We also see the impacts on our saplings once they’ve been planted out, and that a solid post-planting standard of care is crucial to their survival in those more vulnerable early years.
We're therefore investing in climate-proofing our infrastructure, so we’re fundraising for durable polytunnels and systems to harvest and store water. We don't have all the answers, and there is still a lot to learn about the long-term impacts and realities of a climate in chaos.
Our approach is to keep learning and adapting, while working with others to find solutions. The climate crisis is something that tree growers and those planting and harvesting trees need to address collectively, and rapidly. Building resilience for the future will require collaboration, foresight and a willingness for change.
(c) Open Aye Photography
Elsoms Trees, East Lothian and Midlothian
What is a crucial step in the tree-growing process for you?
For us, early customer engagement and communication is fundamental. Growing trees isn’t an instant process; it takes time to get everything underway, so early dialogue is vital to ensure we can properly understand and meet our customers’ requirements and make sure we can grow trees that have the best possible chance of success.
We always encourage customers to start that conversation early, rather than waiting until they have secured grant approvals, prepare the ground and are ready to source their trees. Ideally, that dialogue should begin at the conception stage of a project. This gives us the opportunity to identify the appropriate provenance and genetic origin of the trees and, where appropriate, assess the availability of native seed sources directly from the proposed woodland establishment site.
Growing trees is part of a much bigger picture than simply the nursery phase. Our process therefore needs to start early, so that we can establish the specification of what we are growing to meet the challenges of where those trees are ultimately going and the conditions they will establish in.
How do you maintain a connection between the work at the nursery and the eventual woodland?
With a large nursery operation, it’s important that staff can see the wider context of the work they are involved in. For those working on production lines, we share photographs of the eventual planting sites so that certain conditions and specific requirements can be visualised, such as bracken competition or planting heights. This means that people involved in tasks such as grading trees can understand where those trees are going and the conditions they will eventually be planted into.
How are you adapting your nursery practices to account for a changing climate?
Operating an intensive container nursery growing over 5 million trees per year you have much little margin for error. If a job needs doing, you often need to have done it yesterday.
That means the team needs to take a proactive approach, identifying and addressing potential issues before they become urgent.
This same mentality carries through to our approach to climate resilience. We’ve made resilience to climate change a central part of our business strategy, and to combat the range of challenges we are likely to see, from severe weather events to changing seasonal patterns.
This comes right back to early engagement with projects. We need to think carefully about the genetics of the plants we are growing and which are likely to have the greatest resilience in a changing climate. We believe there is sufficient genetic variation within native species to support adaptation, and building resilience is now a key consideration throughout our business.
We’re also open to working with other specialists, including those working with mycorrhizae and specialised growing media, to improve water retention and support establishment in the critical first few years.
Climate considerations also extend to how we operate the nursery itself. We’re committed to reducing our carbon output through a range of operational choices. As a larger nursery, we can’t be close to every planting scheme, so transportation is another important consideration. We assess site accessibility and delivery routes to help minimise unnecessary travel and improve transport efficiency.
Does your relationship with a project end when the trees leave the nursery?
We believe it’s important to maintain contact with projects well after delivery, which is perhaps more unusual for a nursery. Rather than our involvement ending at the nursery gate, we see value in continuing that relationship to ensure successful establishment.
By visiting planting sites, monitoring tree health and discussing how the trees are performing, we can build a much better understanding of their success and provide support where it’s needed. It also allows us to build long-term relationships with projects and have early conversations about future planting requirements.
(c) Elsoms Trees
With thanks
Many thanks to Jonathan Cameron at Cheviot Trees, Alex Keel-Dwyer at Alba Trees, Elana Bader at Darroch Nurseries, and Rodney Shearer at Elsoms Trees for sharing their insights for this blog.
Across our projects, these four nurseries have supplied a range of native broadleaves and conifers, helping us turn woodland creation plans into trees in the ground.
Across all four conversations, it’s clear the incredibly important role tree nurseries have. Woodland creation starts long before a tree reaches the planting site, the decisions made in the nursery play an incredibly important role in woodland creation, setting projects up for long-term success. It’s also a stage in the process that, like many aspects of modern life, is experiencing growing uncertainty and pressure from the impacts of the climate crisis.
The decisions tree nurseries make today have an important role to play in building resilient woodlands that can withstand the challenges of tomorrow. It’s a forward-looking approach that nurseries are already familiar with, as they navigate changing conditions and make decisions about the trees that will ultimately shape the woodlands of the future.
Interested in woodland creation?
At Forest Carbon, we understand that successful woodland creation starts long before the first tree is planted. If you’re considering a woodland creation project and would like to understand more about the process, the opportunities and the considerations involved, get in touch with our team to find out how we can help. Get in touch.
This article was originally published on Forest Carbon in August 2026.