Take a bough: How — and why — you should plant a mature tree

Trees come in all shapes and sizes. The fashion for planting them has waxed and waned over the centuries, but has fitfully gathered pace since the 1970s, when a growing sense of Britain’s relative treelessness in comparison with most of our European neighbours led to a series of campaigns, beginning with ‘Plant a Tree in ’73’. The idea that those trees should be British natives is a fairly recent concern and one that is reflected in, for example, the Forestry Commission’s transformation in our own lifetime from commercial forester to woodland conservator.

The stage of life at which trees should be transplanted to their final position has also formed a key part of this debate. In the early 19th century, many landowners were awarded gold medals by the Society of Arts for sowing hundreds of