Cragside
The idea of cutting and decorating festive fir trees first emerged in Britain in the 1840s, when Queen Victoria embraced Albert’s Germanic tradition. Some Victorian estate owners had other ideas, though, planting dedicated conifer gardens, or pineta, to show off the prized species being brought back from afar. Many of those specimens are now reaching their peaks, including the soaring Scots pines, Douglas firs and sequoias in the pinetum at Cragside, in Northumberland. Now a National Trust property, this staggeringly swanky house and garden was built for inventor and armaments magnate William Armstrong in the late 1800s. nationaltrust.org.uk
Bedgebury
The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh may have established the International Conifer Conservation Programme, but it’s Bedgebury National Pinetum, in Kent, that lays claim to being the world’s largest pinetum, with 2,300 different conifer species within its 350 acres. Opened in 1925, as the National Conifer Collection, it still has an extensive research arm today, though much of the site is open to the public as a forest park, with walking, cycling and horse-riding trails and a trio of treetop Go Ape courses. For the ultimate Narnia experience, nothing beats a walk here in winter, among needle-tipped boughs dusted with snow. forestryengland.uk
Ardkinglas
If your secret hobby is tracking down champion trees (the Tree Register charity keeps a record of each species’ tallest, broadest or oldest specimens, if you’re not sure where to start), consider a trip to Argyll and Bute this winter. Here, beside Loch Fyne, the lower woodland garden at Ardkinglas is home to a whole clutch of such record-breakers, including a European silver fir, a Patagonian cypress, a western
red cedar, and a mountain hemlock. First planted as a pinetum in 1875, the garden is a forest bather’s dream, now also home to a couple of off-grid, luxury self-catering cabins at the water’s edge. ardkinglas.com
RHS Wisley
Victorian industrialist George Fergusson Wilson certainly knew about burning candles at both ends. Not only did he co-run the candle manufacturing company Price’s, he was also a horticulturist who, in later life, established an ambitious experimental garden at Oakwood, in Surrey. That garden eventually developed into the RHS’s flagship site, Wisley. While innovations like the Hilltop horticultural scientific centre keep Wisley a progressive garden, its oldest tree collection, the pinetum, remains a treasure; and a perfect example of the diversity of conifer species, from lofty redwoods to some black pines planted by Wilson himself. rhs.org.uk
Bodnant Garden
Most pineta were planted in the grounds of large country houses, often as distinct areas within wider-scoped arboreta. Though some have since become rewilded as the fortunes of those houses waned, others, such as Bodnant’s, remain intact. The pinetum here was originally created by industrialist Henry Pochin, in the late 1800s, along the sheltered riverbanks below Bodnant Hall, his home in North Wales. The American and Asian conifers he planted have thrived, as has the rest of the garden; further developed under Pochin’s daughter and grandson, it is now in the care of the National Trust. nationaltrust.org.uk
Kew Gardens
You’ll find the holy trinity of native British conifers – Scots pine, juniper and yew – growing happily in Kew’s 40-acre pinetum, alongside such needle-fringed highlights as the only known living cathaya pine species and a 40m coastal redwood. First developed in the 1860-70s, this peaceful London tree garden is tucked away within the arboretum on the southernmost edge of Kew, and organises species by continent, with South American treasures such as the graceful pinus patula in one area, and Asian wonders including the rare Koyama’s spruce in another. Expect a magnificent variety of foliage, cones and colours. kew.org
