Hedging Plants – Yew

Choose your tree and buy seed – you can collect seed from under trees in parks for a bit of a lucky dip!
Fill a pot with peat-free compost for seedlings and sow the seeds on the surface.
Cover with horticultural grit to allow air circulation, protect the seedlings when watering from the top
Sow in February and keep well watered in a greenhouse or in a heated room with a propagator or a plastic bag over the pot – don’t put on a window sill as the bright sunlight isn’t what conifer seedlings require to germinate.
Once the seedlings emerge, prick out and transplant into four inch pots and keep potting on as seedlings grow over the first year. Either plant outside after the first year, or set into a pot in a half-barrel and grow on from there if you want to keep bringing it indoors.

Species to try:

Scots Pine - the most widely planted pine species for Christmas tree production in the USA, it tolerates a wide range of soil and moisture conditions. It grows vigorously and responds very well to shaping. Needle retention is excellent. A relatively fast grower, it takes only six to eight years to produce a five to eight foot tree.
White Pine – an increasing popular tree with flexible soft needles, fragrant aroma, and blue-green colour. A five to seven foot tree can be grown in seven to ten years.

Christmas gardening seed tree photograph by apintogs, used under a creative commons attribution licence