The Kew Gardener's Guide to Growing Trees: The Art and Science to grow with

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Tony Kirkham MBE is Head of the Arboretum, Gardens & Horticultural Services at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and was awarded the RHS's highest accolade, the Victoria Medal of Honour, in 2019. He has participated in and led several plant-collecting expeditions to Chile and East Asia and has written, co-authored or edited numerous books on trees. He has also featured on TV programmes including A Year at Kew and Judi Dench: My Passion for Trees and has presented two series of The Trees That Made Britain for the BBC.

Part One: The value of trees and why should we plant them?
Trees in the garden
What is a tree?
Parts of a tree
Planting the right tree in the right place
Buying a tree
Looking after a tree between buying and planting
Planting a tree
Tree staking
Aftercare following planting
Tree propagation
Pruning trees
Mature tree pruning operations
When and how to hire a professional arborist

Part Two: Tree profiles
Black tupelo
Paperback maple
Silver birch
Tulip tree
Saucer magnolia
Japanese maple
Norway maple
Handkerchief tree
Common hawthorn
Black mulberry
Japanese dogwood
Chinese flowering dogwood
Honey locust
Judas tree
Golden chain tree
Black walnut
Sweetgum
Harlequin glorybower
Siberian crab
Willow-leaved pear
Hornbeam
Katsura
Grey alder
Japanese Yoshino cherry
Tibetan cherry
Indian horse chestnut
Scarlet oak
Japanese zelkova
Rowan
Whitebeam
Small-leaved lime
Indian bean tree
Service berry
Bullbay
Silver wattle
Strawberry tree
Olive
New Zealand lacebark
Western red cedar
Lawson cypress
English yew
Mediterranean cypress
Dawn redwood
Maidenhair tree
Palm tree

Projects
Planting a maidenhair tree in a container for a balcony or patio
Growing a tree from seed
Making a collage of preserved, colourful autumnal leaves in a picture frame
Topiarising a bay tree into a standard ball
Creating a multi-stemmed birch
Grow your own Christmas tree to bring inside each year
Establishing mistletoe in a garden tree
Five hardworking trees for any small garden
Building an ecological pile in the garden from old logs and branches
Making a bee hotel
Ageing an oak tree and measuring the height without technology
Researching and finding an old veteran tree in a local garden, park or graveyard

Troubleshooting
What to do when