Blog - Research trips

Ever wondered where the seeds for our stunning trees come from? Join us on a thrilling journey to the Mediterranean, as we delve into the latest seed collecting expedition undertaken by the experts at Westonbirt Arboretum.

After introducing Oscar and his role a couple of months ago, he has been busy behind the scenes planning and making progress getting ready for the project to regenerate a part of Silk Wood. Read on to learn about his trip to Delamere Nursery...

Westonbirt has long played a key role on the international stage, working closely with partners and institutions across the globe over many years for mutual benefit.

January and February are a busy time for the team here at Westonbirt! Before the cold weather really sets in, our tree team must find new homes for hundreds of new plants.

Having returned from Vietnam a short while ago, I’ve had a little time to reflect on and recall some highlights of what was an amazing and most fascinating trip.

In early April 2017, Westonbirt’s Dendrologist, Dan Crowley, will be setting out on an exciting documenting expedition to Vietnam, thanks to funding from the Friends of Westonbirt Arboretum.

After just over 3 weeks out in the field in Italy, we are now settling back into our daily routines here at Westonbirt.

We've just left Naples to head for Arrezo in the north.

After an action packed 9 days in Calabria and Basilicata we have made a total of 45 collections from our target and associated species list.

New specimens are the lifeblood of any botanical collection.

In the final week of our seed collecting expedition we collected under the expert guidance of Ron Lance, who has led us to places where our target species are.

So for most of the past week we have been travelling through the wilds of Missouri in search of Carya seed.

Travelling through Missouri with our plant collectors has been an eye opener to say the least. I’ve been lucky enough to witness seed collecting in action: I’ve been given a pass into the world of the Tree Team!...

Yesterday we headed to the Shaw Nature Reserve, which is part of Missouri Botanic Garden. Here we met James Trager, Naturalist at the Shaw Nature Reserve, who joined us in our quest to find the hickory species which are found here.

Something I never thought I would do in my life is accompany a seed collecting trip. Indeed I’m not even sure I knew they still happened before I started work at the arboretum!...