Newton Nursery
Newton Nursery
Located in the north-east of Scotland, our tree nursery grows saplings not only for our sustainable timber industry but also supports new woodland creation projects and protects native species like Scots pine and wild apples for future generations.
Our new state-of-the-art glasshouse stretches over 12,000m² which is roughly the same size as two football fields.
This ambitious redevelopment project has allowed us to expand how many trees we grow from 7 million to around 25 million trees a year, helping us to locally source trees for our forests.
What we’re growing
The stock produced in our new glasshouse will be mostly conifer species such as, Scots pine, Sitka spruce, lodgepole pine, and Norway spruce, which are the backbone of Scotland’s £1 billion forestry industry.
The crop inside the glasshouse will be rotated throughout the year to supply our Tape4Trees planting system as well producing cell-grown conifer and broadleaf saplings later in the year.
Our nursery is also home to other important projects such as seed orchards for spruce and wild apples.
Tape4Trees is a one-of-a-kind technology that allows us to plant 1 million trees a day
Better success rates
The controlled environment of the glasshouse will also increase how many seeds make it to a sapling.
Housing our young trees inside shields them from invasive weeds and curious critters, it also allows us to monitor the volume of water and temperature
We hoping to see a significant boost in our germination success rate, aiming to achieve an impressive 80 – 90% germination rate for our seeds, depending on the species. Currently we’re planning our work around a 50% - 60% success rate for our seeds. This will help us be more consistent with what were producing for our forests.
Learn more about our new glasshouse
The journey from seed to sapling
Planting the seeds
Growing a tree always begins with a seed. We select the best seeds from the strongest trees to help create the healthiest forests possible.
At Newton, we grow trees using two methods: bare-root and cell-grown. Each species is matched with the most suitable approach, but all start their journey in our glasshouse. It can take up to three years for a seed to become a forest-ready sapling.
Transplanting
After spending 12 to 16 weeks in the glasshouse, our bare-root trees are transplanted into the fertile fields surrounding the nursery.
This is where our Tape4Trees technology boosts productivity—specialist planters can place up to one million trees per day into the ground, a task that previously took weeks. Speedy transplanting helps the young trees take full advantage of Moray’s long summer days, giving them the best chance to grow into strong, healthy saplings.
Transplanting cell-grown trees is different. They remain in the glasshouse until they are ready to be delivered to forests across Scotland. First, seeds are planted into mini-plugs. After a few weeks, AI-powered vision grading selects the healthiest seedlings, which are then carefully transplanted into larger cell trays—similar to those found in garden centres.
Daily care and attention
Whether growing in the fields or the glasshouse, our trees need constant care. This includes regular watering, weeding to optimise space and nutrient availability, and close monitoring to ensure strong growth.
Our fields are weeded by hand, or by ‘Garford’ an AI powered weeder who works with the Tape4Trees system and allows us to mechanically weed even the smallest of trees and lowered our need to weed by hand.
Final planting site
Once our seedlings reach approximately 50cm in height, they are ready for their final journey—to be planted in woodlands across Scotland. Each year, we nurture and dispatch around 25 million young trees, most of which are grown right here at Newton.
Why Newton?
In the past we had many small nurseries across Scotland, but these days we have just one nursery at Newton near Elgin.
Newton is in north-east Scotland, around 30 miles from Inverness. This spot was chosen due to its unique microclimate that makes it significantly drier and sunnier than other places in the country. The area is also rich with fertile soil making it the ideal place for the young trees to grow.
Our history of growing trees
Although we always love looking for new technologies to improve our work, it’s important to recognise the heritage of Newton Nursery too.
Our predecessor, the Forestry Commission, was set up in 1919 to oversee the reforestation of Britain after the First World War. UK tree cover had dipped to as low as 5% so we needed to work hard to restore woodland cover.
Tree nurseries were set up across the country to meet the growing demand for trees, Newton had been a working agricultural farm and was turned into a tree nursery in 1931. We estimate there has been over 300 million trees grown since then!
Learn more about the history of our nursery
Explore our nursery
Learn more about how the nursery works, where the seeds come from, how we care for them at the nursery and how we are modernising for the future.