I am lucky enough to live very near the national pinetum in Bedgebury. I had not until this weekend visited the forest at this time of year. It was amazing to see the evergreen trees against the skeletons of others. The pinetum have redwood trees which are beautiful...one day I would like to see the redwood forests in California where they have grown to 300-350 feet tall and 16-18 feet across.
At this time of year there were many pine cones nestled around the forest floor amongst the pine leaves and decaying leaves. I watched two squirrels chasing each other.
I am aiming to visit again later on in spring and again in summer and autumn so I see how it changes over a year.
"The Forestry Commission manage the National Pinetum for the nation. They aim to have a visually pleasing mix of conifers and broadleaved specimens contained in 350 acres of rolling Wealden countryside. The collection was started in the 1840's by the Beresford Hope family and was greatly improved following its acquisition by the Forestry Commission in 1925 when it became jointly managed with Kew Gardens. The planting scheme of William Dallimore, the first curator, largely kept all trees from the same genera together, whilst this was useful for comparing species it lead to an uninteresting landscape. The 1987 storm destroyed up to a third of the trees, this sad event provided an opportunity to replant with mixture of trees to give a varied landscape."
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