How can you have left out the rowan? It's traditionally the first tree we should plant, to keep our house safe from evil spirits. And it's not just for near houses, it's one of the most frequent trees found high up on Scottish hills, often growing on rocks where sheep and deer can't get at it. With spectacular flowers in Spring and berries in Autumn it's very decorative too. The berries are much appreciated by the various thrushes - I'd post a photo of a mistle thrush enjoying ours last week if I could see how. And you can make very characterful rowan jelly from the berries (while still leaving enough for the thrushes), which goes very well with all the venison we should be eating to keep our deer population within bounds
My favourite is definitely the oak, mainly because of the tremendous number of other species it supports directly (over 800 I seem to recall?) but also because it’s the first tree I become familiar with as a boy, playing at the base of a large one at the top of our garden. Finding acorns has become much harder lately I’ve noticed, so I hope the ones that are being produced are growing into saplings in good numbers.
How can you have left out the rowan? It's traditionally the first tree we should plant, to keep our house safe from evil spirits. And it's not just for near houses, it's one of the most frequent trees found high up on Scottish hills, often growing on rocks where sheep and deer can't get at it. With spectacular flowers in Spring and berries in Autumn it's very decorative too. The berries are much appreciated by the various thrushes - I'd post a photo of a mistle thrush enjoying ours last week if I could see how. And you can make very characterful rowan jelly from the berries (while still leaving enough for the thrushes), which goes very well with all the venison we should be eating to keep our deer population within bounds
My favourite is definitely the oak, mainly because of the tremendous number of other species it supports directly (over 800 I seem to recall?) but also because it’s the first tree I become familiar with as a boy, playing at the base of a large one at the top of our garden. Finding acorns has become much harder lately I’ve noticed, so I hope the ones that are being produced are growing into saplings in good numbers.