Trees for Free! If you've got a bare patch in your garden or think that your local school could be a bit greener, get in touch with us and you can get a woodland shrub or tree for free! Not only will you be improving the environment for you and your neighbours, you'll also be providing foliage and food for Southwark's bird life too.
The scheme is open to residents, schools and community groups located within Southwark.
How can I get a free tree?
Come down to the  London Wildlife Trust's Centre for Wildlife Gardening between 10.30am and 4.30pm on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sunday. We're located at 28 Marsden Road Peckham SE15 4EE.
How big are the trees?
The trees and shrubs are available as young, bare-rooted plants roughly one metre tall. They will need to be planted at once.
Can I choose the type of tree or shrub?
Yes - our knowledgeable staff can also help you decide which type or tree or shrub is best for your garden. These are the types available:
Climbing Plants
- Clematis - also called 'old man's beard' due to its woolly seed heads. A vigorous climbing species with delicate greenish white flowers in summer.
- Honeysuckle - beautiful yellow-purplish pink fragrant flowers in summer developing into red berries in autumn (please note - these berries are poisonous).
- Ivy - The native evergreen climbing species. Excellent wildlife plant because of its late season, nectar-rich flowers and berries.
- Wild roses - the romance of these rambling scramblers or climbers makes excellent covering for a fence, provides extra security and shelters birds. Choose between dog rose, field rose, burnet rose or sweet briar. The flowers range from white to pink and all have lovely rose hips.
Large shrubs and small trees (10 to 30 feet tall)
- Blackthorn - a spiny bush, great for early colour and nectar. The white flowers open early in spring, before the leaves. Later on the blue-black fruits called sloes develop, used traditionally in sloe gin liquors.
- Buckthorn - this is the only food plant of brimstone butterflies. This is an attractive shrub or very small tree. The berries will make you sick if you eat them.
- Cherry Plum - A very small tree. The white flowers appear in early spring and develop into small, yellow edible plums that are good for jam making, birds or snacking.
- Dogwood - Bright red twigs in winter, inspiring white star-shaped flowers in clusters and black berries in autumn (inedible). The leaves and twigs offer beautiful autumn colour.
- Guelder Rose - Not a rose at all, this bush bears attractive leaves, lovely heads of white flowers and bright red berries in the autumn.
- Hawthorn - The familiar may blossom of hedgerows appears late April or early May with the red fruits called 'haws' later on. Hawthorn is important to birds for food and shelter.
- Hazel - A graceful sprawling shrub with arching branches. Hazel bears catkins in spring and hazel nuts in autumn - if the squirrels don't eat them first. The flexible branches are used for hurdles.
- Holly - very slow growing but wonderful for birds. Planted with ivy it will help to support the holly blue butterfly. The berries are poisonous to humans.
- Spindle - Bright green twigs and stunning autumn colour. The fruits are bright coral pink and split to reveal orange seeds. Good for birds but not edible for humans.
- Wayfaring tree - More a large bush, it has oval, felted grey-green leaves and heads of cream flowers. Bunches of inedible green berries turn from red to black when they are ripe.
- Wild Privet - similar to the familiar hedging plant, it keeps most of its leaves in winter and produces small black inedible berries. Food plant for the spectacular privet hawkmoth.
Trees that grow to a medium size (30 to 80 feet tall)
- Alder - A fast growing, damp loving tree. Slower growing in a drier soil. The alder has seed cases that look like little pine cones and are much enjoyed by finches.
- Bird Cherry - Beautiful, fragrant spikes of white flowers in May which develop into black fruits in August. Used traditionally to flavour brandy and wines. Birds adore them too!
- Crab Apple - The wild crab apple is bigger than a domestic apple tree but has the same broad spreading shape. The small, sour apples make good apple sauce.
- Field Maple - The only native to Britain. Its' elegant leaves are small and it bears winged seeds in autumn.
- Goat Willow - The tree is sometimes known as the 'pussy willow' for it's lavish spring display of pollen-covered catkins, which are enormously useful to the bees.
- Osier - A moisture loving tree or shrub with slender glossy twigs and leaves. Catkins crowd the shoots in March. This is the favoured willow for basket making or willow-weaving.
- Rowan - The Rowan or Mountain Ash is a decorative tree with heads of small cream flowers in spring, which become orange-red berries, good for birds or jelly making.
- Silver Birch - Loved for its silver bark, small dancing leaves and catkins. This tree casts a light shade, allowing plants to grow under it.
- Wild Cherry - This large tree bears fragrant flowers in spring before its leaves appear, which develop into small cherries much loved by birds.
- Yew - Gnarled old trees in churchyards and clipped hedging in the garden. Dark green evergreen foliage with red berries in August. All parts are poisonous.
Trees that grow to a large size (100 to 120 feet tall)
- Ash - A tall tree with silver bark and black buds. Its fast growing strong straight wood was used for spears and tool handles. Ideal as a coppiced shrub.
- Beech - One of Britain's largest and most elegant trees. It casts a deep shade and prefers light soil, but it will grow in clay.
- Hornbeam - Like a beech but slightly smaller, the hornbeam is a tree that likes clay soils. The wood is very hard.
- Oak - a slow growing but long lived tree. Oak trees are a very important source of food for wildlife.
Contact us
London Wildlife Trust's Centre for Wildlife Gardening
28 Marsden Road
Peckham
London SE15 4EE |