We were delighted to host the launch of the Elms4London 2025 plan this week, in partnership with Chiswick Flower Market, in the final session of the 2024 Chiswick Book Festival: ‘Why we need trees’.
It was a terrific occasion at The George IV in Chiswick High Road with presentations from Arit Anderson, Gardeners’ World presenter & author, The Essential Tree Selection Guide; Mark Lane, Chairman of Elms4London & Head Gardener at Buckingham Palace 1992-2022; and David Shreeve, Co-author of Great British Elms & Co-founder/director of the Conservation Foundation; chaired by Karen Liebreich, Co-founder of Abundance London & Chiswick Flower Market.
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It was also the launch for ‘Great British Elms: The remarkable story of an iconic tree and its return from the brink’ by David Shreeve and Mark Seddon. The book is reviewed here on the Chiswick Calendar website and is now listed on our Chiswick Timeline of Writers & Books here and here: ‘Chiswick’s gardeners: Kent, Lindley, Paxton & the RHS’. You can buy it at Waterstones Chiswick.
Elms4London has written this about the book :
The elm tree is vital for biodiversity – the White-Letter Hairstreak butterfly only appears around elms and rooks’ nest in their branches. Elm is a water-resistant wood – the Romans used it for water pipes, and it is still regarded as a valuable building material. John Constable depicted the elm in his paintings as a much-loved beauty on our landscape. And yet, anyone under 40 will not be as familiar with this tree after the tragedy of the Dutch elm disease destroyed so many in the 1960’s. This new book from Kew Publishing shows there is much to be hopeful about – the elm is on a comeback!
This year’s Elms4London campaign has been endorsed by Alan Titchmarsh, who spoke at our Chiswick House event last year, ‘Chatsworth and Chiswick’. He writes: “It is a wonderful testament to the determination of our generation to save a tree which once was lost and now is re-found, thanks to Elms4London. This campaign has already funded the reintroduction of hundreds of robust disease-resistant elms throughout the Greater London area – each one of them planted in a site which will suit their scale and enhance their surroundings and the lives of those who pass them each day.
“If you can help to fund this initiative with a donation, however modest, you will be doing your bit to rejuvenate our capital city in a way which helps conserve wildlife and contributes to the wellbeing of all those who encounter these glorious trees. We have the means to do so; it is our duty to those who come after to leave our city greener, brighter and healthier, thanks to the elm tree.” Find out more.