Collins Tree Guide

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Victoria Schilling worked alongside Alan Mitchell as assistant dendrologist at Alice Holt for many years before Alan retired and together they set up the tree consultancy Green Scene. Most wild food books only give cursory plant ID specifics and are generally not enough to ensure absolute certainty. One of the best modern tree identification books, this guide covers a wide variety of trees and has a simple key at the beginning to help you get started, as well as good identification detail. Most useful when you have a bit of experience. A really useful and detailed description of the ecology and natural history of trees, this book providesa comprehensive introduction to all aspects of tree biology. It answers a wide range of important questions about trees and conveys a wealth of useful information.

This brand-new field guide to the trees of northern Europe contains some of the finest original tree illustrations ever produced. The introduction contains illustrations of the main leaves, buds, and firs you are likely to find, and these provide the starting point for identification by leading you to a 'key' species. The late Alan Mitchell (1922-1995) was an internationally acclaimed dendrologist who came to public notice when his book A Field Guide to the Trees of Britain and Northern Europe was first published by Collins in 1974.

Image Right:The Honorable Maynard Greville pictured at Highclere Berkshire in the 1950`s. Victoria Schilling

Quite simply a stunning work, this book depicts 144 detailed watercolours and descriptions of a wide range of different apples from Beauty of Bath to Egremont Russet. It’s one we often use for details of some useful apple trees.His continuing search for rare and exceptional trees enabled the Forestry Commission to publish the first comprehensive list of Champion Trees which they continued to update until 1994. Alan retired from the Forestry Commission in 1986 and set up a consultancy service Green Scene with Victoria Schilling (then Hallett) before founding the Tree Register in 1988. Alan continued measuring and recording trees on his hand written card index completing records of over 100,000 trees before his death in 1995. Freelance dendrologist. David supports the Trustees and is the Tree Register database manager and volunteer network co-ordinator. As part of the Tree Register partnership with the Woodland Trust he is theHead Verifier for the Ancient Tree Inventory. Registrar (Hon) Owner of a private arboretum in south-east England, with plantings of known wild provenance. Member of Royal Horticultural Society Committee B. Executive Vice President of the Royal Horticultural Society. Jim retired after a 28-year career at the society as its curator and horticulture director.

Senior Environmental Advisor for Highways England. Philippa has also been our European Representative since 2015 and has previously volunteered for the Tree Register as Membership Secretary and helped archive materials now held at Kew. The former Prince of Wales has a wide variety of interests, enjoys gardening, sports and the performing arts and painting in watercolours. Featuring 80 native and ornamental species, this book gives growing tips, facts, statistics and tree trivia and is illustrated throughout with photography and line drawings. Each tree is detailed with height, shape, fruit, leaves, flowers, bark and more. An ID guide and a practical handbook for growers.

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Covering all the tree species found outside the major arboretums, from the olive tree to the eucalyptus, this is one of the most important tree guides to have appeared in the last 20 years. The illustrations are annotated with essential identification features, and the text highlights the most important things to look for to aid fast and accurate identification. There is also coverage of all the species native to Southern Europe. Chairman of Trustees. Retired partner in a leading firm of solicitors in the City of London and keen conservationist. Alan studied forestry in Dublin, Ireland from 1947-51, gaining a degree before going briefly to Trinity Botanic Garden and then the Forestry Commission as assistant geneticist at the Alice Holt Research Station, Surrey, England. His work gave him access to many private estates in search for the selection of fine trees for seed collection. He had an insatiable thirst for compiling lists, helped by a genuine photographic memory for statistics. At The Tree Council we are often asked for our recommendations of useful tree reference books and other tree guides. So, with Christmas on its way, we have put together a reading list of our top 12 books on tree identification, growing and care. We hope you find it useful! Currently my #1 field guide. A good balance between a wildflower key, and a photographic ID book. With superb photography throughout, including stunning portraits and close-ups of key features where relevant, and succinct, no-nonsense text this book will help you identify almost any wildflower that you may encounter in Britain and Ireland – Read more. Francis Rose Wild Flower Key