Disease-resistant elm trials

The English countryside was once dominated by elms, stately giants that watched over our landscape, providing a beauty of form and grace unique to these glorious trees. Since the 1960s, they have been ravaged by Dutch elm disease, a disease that was accidently introduced to Europe in the early 20th century. The disease is caused by a pathogenic microfungus carried by two species of elm bark beetle and has killed nearly all the mature elms in Britain, an estimated toll of 60-100 million trees.

The elm was historically one of the six major trees within our woodlands, widely used in landscaping and hosts more than 80 species of invertebrate, including several rare moths and the now endangered white-letter hairstreak butterfly.

We are trialling several different elm varieties that have been developed by specialised breeding programmes, with initial findings suggesting these cultivars can resist the disease and establish well. The planting locations are being mapped to help record future growth patterns, ability to resist the disease and how well the elms support biodiversity and nature recovery.

‘Re-elming’ Hampshire will provide a huge support to wildlife that relied on this once ubiquitous tree.

Claim your free trees – applications open now

This winter we have over 3,000 disease resistant elms of six different variants available to distribute free to farmers, landowners, schools, parish councils and community groups and public places across Hampshire. We have Ulmus ademuz, lutece, rebona, new horizon, fiorente and wingham. We can offer up to 20 elms per application and have various sizes both bareroot and pot grown. We also supply stakes and guards to protect the trees.

The trees must be located outside of existing woodlands and be able to grow to maturity to provide maximum biodiversity benefits to the white-letter hairstreak butterfly. They can be planted within hedges to become hedgerow trees, along bare boundaries, in fields as tree clusters or as individual trees. They can also be planted within new tree planting sites such as new shelter belts or new linear woodlands or copses where we have funded these at the same time (total planting area must be less than 0.5ha). Priority locations are those that benefit the white-letter hairstreak butterfly and are visible in the landscape for people to enjoy. All we ask in return is that you photograph the trees once planted and provide a location via grid reference or what3words for every tree you have received. You will need to collect your trees from one of our collection points and we will require access to monitor the trees once planted to see how they grow.

Closing date for Round 3 - February 21 2025

Next collection point and date:

Wednesday 26 February 2025 - Manor Farm Attraction within River Hamble Country Park, Pyland's Lane, Southampton, SO31 1BH

To apply for your free trees send an email to [email protected] and we will send you our short application form.

FUNDING SUPPORT

We are supporting tree and hedgerow planting on farms and across communities in Hampshire through our Shoots Along the Routes funding scheme and Linking leaves. We can provide free trees for community spaces, schools, colleges, parks and farms. Contact us for more information.