News and Events

Dear KFOTT Members   Trees and Shrubs Online   I am sure that many will be aware of the very important online resource , Trees and Shrubs Online, that allows any viewer to gather very clear and detailed information on many tree species across the world. www.treesandshrubsonline.org   You may recall that your Trustees agreed…

  Dear KFOTT Member,                                                                                                      …

Michael Warren, whom many will know was responsible for the Sandling Park gardens for many years, has captured and shared these photos of the beautiful Autumn colour on the trees in the Sandling Park gardens this year. Enjoy!                                

This year, Kent Friends of the Trees introduced a new annual competition – “Tree of the Year.” Parish councils were invited to nominate a tree in their village for consideration by the Judging Panel. The theme for the 2025 competition was “A tree with a story.” A total of 11 parish councils were good enough…

On a bright morning we gathered around Owen Johnson, guide for our visit, to start our visit to the gardens at Wakehurst Place.  Owen led us past the Seedbank complex into Bethlehem Wood and from there through Coates Woodand, returning in time for lunchtime refreshment at the Stables Café. Owen explained his route selection as…

We are pleased to announce the dates for our Winter Season presentations, invitations and further details will be sent nearer the time, we hope you can join us.   Date Time Presenter Theme Location Tuesday 24 February 2026 2.30pm Jamie Cunningham Forestry in the South East – a review of current practices and challenges Saltwood…

Dear KFOTT Member, I am delighted to announce the arrangements for this year’s Annual Lunch. I hope you can join us at the new venue we have selected: The Wishful Thinker. The Venue require a £20 pp deposit which is non-refundable in order to secure the booking, so please book and pay the deposit as…

KFOTT Daytrip to Wakehurst Place, Haywards Heath, RH17 6TN Tuesday 4th November Dear KFOTT Member, I am delighted to announce the last of our day trips for 2025, This is an excellent opportunity to visit or re-visit Wakehurst Place in the company of Owen Johnson, to admire its splendid trees and to explore the millennium…

This visit to Mote Park was a revelation; for some of us it was a first-time visit, whilst others had passed through at various times in past years …but every single member of the group came away with a completely altered view of what was there… We were guided around by Alan Frith, the Park…

The weather was showing the friendly face on an English summer as a group of 20 members was introduced to Misako, the Head Gardener in front of the main house at Riverhill. Misako laid out the history of the estate, first established by John Rogers in 1840 and whose family continues to  own it through…

A message from our Chairman: I am happy to report that we now have a Facebook page operating for the charity.  This is a public page, so anybody – member or otherwise – can follow the page and post content or comment on other content. If you are a Facebook user, please find our page…

Our visit to Great Comp Garden was blessed with perfect weather, and our group of 14 attendees was guided around the 7-acre garden by Christina, the senior gardener, who works with a team of 2 part-time gardeners together with a larger team of volunteers. The garden dates from the late 1950’s and was developed from…

Suzanne Simard: Finding the Mother Tree Peter Wohlleben: The Hidden Life of Trees   Byline: These two books, by pioneers on either side of the Atlantic, will forever change the way you look at woods and forests. They explain our growing understanding of the deep, complex and fascinating connectivity between trees.  Suzanne Simard and Peter…

It may be that you have heard the – memorable – name Tristan Gooley,  author of this and other books; you may have already explored his world of books, focussing on reading the landscape, weather, sun, moon, trees, plants and animals in order to navigate safely using the “outdoor clues and signs”. This book “How…

Chris Lane  – Cherry Time of Year   Our AGM guest speaker , Chris Lane, had a busy day on Saturday 12 April! As a Trustee of Brogdale Trust, he was supporting the annual Hanami festival at Brogdale in the morning and joined us for our AGM in the afternoon. Chris chose the subject of…

Saturday 12th April 2025               Annual General Meeting                                             2.30pm VENUE: Lenham Community Centre, 2 Groom Way, Lenham, Maidstone ME17 2QT Speaker: Chris Lane, Proprietor and Manager Witchhazel Nursery “An engaging insight on the Subject of Wisteria”   2025 DAY VISITS – travel by car, (please car-share if possible, as some have restricted parking)   Tues…

On 21 January an audience of 40 was delighted to welcome Lyndsay and Anna, two representatives from Kent Plan Tree, to brief us on the Elm Reintroduction project; our first Winter Season presentation.       A good turnout at the Lads’ Club in Saltwood, demonstrating an enthusiastic response to the reintroduction of elm to…

Paul Hamlyn, our speaker, is the Fruit Production Manager at AC Hulme, a major mixed farming business in north-east Kent, covering arable, livestock and fresh produce.  Paul is responsible for management of the orchards (apple, pear, plum, cherry, apricot) as well as a small area of asparagus. The total area covers around 200 hectares. Paul…

Dear KMOTT Member, Paul Hamlyn – Facing Challenges in Fruit Farming We are delighted to announce details of our second Winter presentation this season, which takes a completely different view of the world of trees – from the perspective of a commercial top fruit farm in Kent and invite our members and guests to join…

Dear KMOTT Member   Lyndsay Wayman-Rook: ELM HERITAGE KENT – Reintroducing Elm to our landscape   We are delighted to announce details of a presentation on this important project to reintroduce Elm trees to the Kent landscape and invite our members and guests to join this event either in person or online.   Talk Commences…

We were kindly invited by Edward Barham to visit his family estate at Hole Park near Rolvenden. Edward is a prominent KMOTT Member and the visit concentrated on viewing the trees in the very impressive parkland at Hole Park, rather than the equally stunning  gardens around the house, which will have to wait for another…

I am delighted to announce the arrangements for this year’s Annual Lunch. I hope you can join us at the new venue we have selected: the Ringlestone Inn.  Please note that numbers are restricted to 24, so please book and pay as soon as possible to secure your place.   KMOTT Annual Lunch 2024 Weds…

October 2024 saw a group of 24 members visit Somerset to explore 6 gardens / arboreta, one cathedral and two churches – all in 5 days including travel…a very busy trip! After an uneventful journey we arrived for a restorative soup and a roll before embarking on a visit to Tyntesfield. This is a dramatic…

Aeriel view with the Permission of John Langman John Langman was our host for this visit to Palmstead Nursery, he set up the business in 1968 in Palmstead village with 3 expanding to 11 acres. At this point there was no further space available at the original site, so the whole business – including plants…

We are delighted to announce details of an additional  KMOTT day trip and invite our members to join this excursion. Travel by car. Meet at 2.00 pm Sat 31 August 2024    Palmstead Nurseries, Harville Road, Wye, Ashford TN25 5EU Car parking on site.                 Refreshments will be provided.            No dogs on site, please. Palmstead is a…

This was an opportunity to visit the oldest deer park in the UK, which, as was very evident even on arrival, still houses a group of Fallow deer living wild in the 900 acre park. Our group of 18 visitors was hosted by a team of three responsible for management and health of the estate…

After a prolonged wet and dull Spring, the weather in May was presenting  a much more friendly face when a group of 18 members visited Sandling Park, near Hythe. This estate has been in the Hardy family since the late 19th century, and the gardens date back to that time. Successive members of the family…

Kent Men of the Trees held it’s Annual General Meeting at Lenham on Saturday 13th April which was well attended by members. After formal business, members were delighted to receive a presentation by Dan Luscombe, Curator of Bedgebury National Pinetum. Dan gave a fascinating illustrated presentation on ‘Discover Bedgebury National Pinetum and it’s role in…

As members will be aware our Administrator and Treasurer Debbie Burton stepped down at the end of December after seven years service to Kent Men of The Trees. We are pleased to welcome her as a new member and delighted she could join us at the AGM, George Kirby announced that as a thank you,…

The University is creating a ‘river of vegetation’ across the Canterbury campus. The ‘river’ has been developed by the Sustainability Team and Landscape and Grounds Team to act as natural signposting and a wildlife corridor between two flagship project areas that celebrate biodiversity, community engagement and sustainable food – the Kent Community Oasis Garden and…

George Kirby the Chair of Kent Men of Trees, joined volunteers to plant one of the trees we gifted to them. Four trees were gifted, all of which have now been planted in the Brockhill Valley. The English Oak, Field Maple, Hornbeam, and this magnificent Scot’s Pine have plenty of space, so they can mature…

Our long trip this season was to the County of Wiltshire with a full schedule of visits to enjoy.  Our journey to our base near Corsham involved a slight dog-leg via Salisbury, to visit the ancient and supremely impressive cathedral.  The building is a beautiful example of [perpendicular] architecture with an immensely long arching nave. …

Many people visit Bedgebury every year, and probably understand that this is the National Pinetum…but do not have the pleasure and privilege of being shown around by the Curator, Dan Luscombe.   Dan has been the Curator for a number of years, and is passionate in his enthusiasm for the conifer world, visiting countries across the…

Alun Griffiths – Chairman 2003 to 2022 Alun Griffiths left for Malaya in 1960, having finished his post-doctoral studies at Oxford. He spent 8 years working at the leprosy hospital in Sungei Buloh, after which he re-located with his family to Melbourne, Australia, and there developed a group to study the ultra-structure of fungi. After…

On one of the hottest days of the year to date, an enthusiastic group of 22 gathered at Wildwood Trust for a visit that – unusually for a visit by Kent Men of the Trees – did not focus on a specific tree collection.  Our expectation on this visit was to understand more about the…

This year’s AGM is to be held on Saturday 15th April at 2.30pm. Please note that this year it will be at a NEW VENUE, Lenham Community Centre, 2 Groom Way, Lenham, Maidstone ME17 2QT All our members are invited to attend the proceedings, enjoy the presentation and to socialise over refreshments afterwards. Our speaker will be…

In advance of the Green Card being finalised, we thought it may be helpful to circulate the PROVISIONAL dates for the KMOTT events this year, so that you can enter them in your diary.   AGM on Saturday 15th April at 2.30pm. This year at a NEW VENUE, Lenham Community Centre, 2 Groom Way, Lenham,…

KMOTT went to Gloucester – and did not step into a puddle at all! The long-anticipated excursion to Gloucestershire started on a miserable note – our pick-up points at Stop 24 and at the Mercure Hotel near Maidstone caught our travellers in an unexpected downpour, but your correspondent is happy to report that this was…

White House Farm – Maurice Foster On another bright and sunny afternoon a group of nearly 20 members gathered in the garden of White House Farm, under the expansive boughs of a fallen very old Bramley apple tree; we were greeted and made to feel welcome by Maurice Foster and his [daughter] Claire. Maurice introduced…

Hole Park Lime Avenue KMOTT presented 70 Lime Trees to Hole Park near Rolvenden to celebrate HM The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee and the Prince of Wales’s tree planting initiative. The site is on both sides of an existing public footpath to form an avenue and the intention is to also plant daffodils between the trees…

On a perfect Summer’s afternoon, an enthusiastic group of two dozen members met as agreed at Ladham House near Goudhurst. Whilst the Kent Men have visited once before in 2009, we were excited to return to this beautiful garden and to observe the improvements made by the Johnson family. We were guided through the walk…

The funeral of KMOTT’s former President, Sir Charles Jessel, Bt, took place on Wednesday, the 20th of April. He was 97. He studied PPE at Balliol College, Oxford and, after call-up, served in the final years of the war in the 15th/19th The Kings Royal Hussars. He was, in fact, the last surviving war-time officer…

We finally have a year packed with KMOTT events! 2022 looks set to be one of the best yet, with several long awaited get-togethers planned, including local day visits – and of course, the long trip, this year to Gloucestershire. Full details and directions for each event will be emailed to members nearer the time….

On October 11th 2021 fourteen brave souls took the perilous journey to the far West and into the land of the Celts. Would they be met with hostility as foreign invaders? We knew that the journey would be long and to add a semblance of normality to our fatigued state we stopped off at Stover…

The Kent Men of the Trees is proud to have supplied 50 trees for two university sites in Kent. The first, at the recently established Kent and Medway Medical School (KMMS) on Kent’s Canterbury campus and the second, outside the Verena Holmes Building on Canterbury Christ Church University campus. The trees were planted late last year…

On 12th May 2021 – in glorious warm sunshine, 17 members visited Charles Aldington’s lovely landscape garden overlooking Romney Marsh. We were generously given nearly 2 hours of his time on a guided walk around the woodland and formal gardens enjoying huge views enhanced by careful planting to maximise their impact. Charles has recently published…

Hooray!  Kent Men of the Trees has actually managed a visit in this year of plague!  On Monday  6th July 2020 eleven members met on Yalding Hill to view the six acre arboretum created by Mr Paul Reddy over the last twenty-five years at Hill Farm Oast.  He has done this more or less single…

Following the recent guidelines on COVID-19, the KMOTT AGM 2020 HAS BEEN CANCELLED. The situation will be monitored and we hope to re-schedule the AGM when it is safe to do so. We apologise for any inconvenience but will be in touch again once a new date has been decided.

On the 17th of July 2019 twenty five members toured Sir Charles Jessel’s estate at South Hill, Hastingleigh in glorious sunny weather. Sir Charles, riding his high-powered, turbo-charged buggy led us first through the garden and informed us that except for the gigantic specimen of Tilia adjacent to the house every other tree and shrub…

On the first day of the Merry Month of May twenty-three members arrived at the estate of Tom and Davina Wood to tour the woodland that had been created on what had formerly been a plant nursery known as Oakover Nurseries.  After the company had moved to another location Tom Wood bought the 15 acre…

KMOTT members are warmly invited to attend the KMOTT AGM at 2.30pm on Saturday 13 April 2019, as usual at Egerton Village Hall, Elm Close, Egerton TN27 9DS. This year our speaker is Simon Brice, a KMOTT member whom many of you will know. He will deliver a thirty-minute illustrated talk entitled “A Tricycle Journey…

The Royal Estate, Windsor: The Savill Garden and Valley Gardens On  16 May 2018 we travelled to Windsor to view the recently upgraded facilities at the 14-hectare Savill Gardens and to tour the magnificent arboreal and floristic display. We were met by Mr Harvey Stephens, the deputy keeper, who gave us an outline of the…

Excursion to Yorkshire We left Hollingbourne at eight o’clock on the morning of October 9th and arrived at Ripley Castle for a splendid and life- sustaining lunch. We walked around the gardens with a knowledgeable gardener and we viewed a lake fed by three rivers; an unidentified yellow-berried holly; a Wellingtonia and some yews. The…

Scotney Castle On our final excursion of 2017, twenty-five members visited Scotney Castle in Lamberhurst on an unusually warm, sunny day in October. We were met by three guides at the ticket office and were led first to Bastion View to marvel at the garden vista set before us, dominated by the ruins of the…

KMOTT Long Trip to Herefordshire Mon 8 October – Thursday 11 October 2018 We are delighted to invite KMOTT members on our long trip to Herefordshire this October. Whilst Hereford itself is lacking suitable hotels, we have found and reserved a good hotel as our base near Ross-on-Wye at Penyard House. Here we will have…

Our final day trip of 2018 will be on November the 14th when we go to Sheffield Park to enjoy the autumn colour. This will be by coach like our first trip. The gardens feature some spectacular trees including a 140-year old Redwood and an old Thuja with the branches bending down to the ground…

  We hope to have a guide for our tour of Bedgebury Pinetum on the 18th of July 2018 where we will see some of the younger trees. As you will know, The National Pinetum at Bedgebury is one of the most complete collections of conifers on one site anywhere in the world. It contains…

    The garden is part of Windsor Great Park. The plan is to go by coach, have lunch at Savill followed by a guided tour of Valley Gardens, one of the many gardens in the park. Lunch is not included in the price of the trip, but the cafe offers a wide menu, or…

Our members are welcome to attend The Kent Men of the Trees Annual General Meeting Saturday 21st April 2018 at 2.30pm At Egerton Village Hall, Elm Close, Egerton TN27 9DS After the official business we will be delighted to introduce our Guest Speaker, Berty Van Hensbergen, a global expert in sustainable forest management.

Here are the directions for our day trip next Wednesday 19th July, to explore the trees in Canterbury Cemetery, as recommended by the guest speaker at our AGM, Owen Johnson. The plan is to meet at 2.30 at the main entrance (on the south side of the Cemetery). The main entrance on Westgate Court Avenue….

Our members are welcome to attend The Kent Men of the Trees Annual General Meeting Saturday 15th April 2017 at 2.30pm At Egerton Village Hall, Elm Close, Egerton TN27 9DS After the official business we will be delighted to introduce our Guest Speaker, Owen Johnson. As registrar to the National Tree Register, which notifies all…

In October 2016, KMOTT made its first overseas excursion. A group of us flew to Dublin and went by coach to the Glendalough Hotel in Laragh. En route we visited Glasnevin Botanic Gardens – home of Ireland’s National Herbarium and one of the world’s most important collections of plants. There we admired a fine collection…

The RHS has recently awarded one of our committee members, Michael Warren, the prestigious A J Waley Medal for his commitment to the Sandling Park rhododendron collection – a great honour.

Visits include: Glasnevin Botanical Gardens in Dublin, Emo Court in Co Laois, Coolcarrigan Gardens in Co Kildare and Kilmacurragh, Avondale House & Forest Park and Mount Usher in Co Wicklow. Irish estates are quite large and members going on this tour should be in good walking order.

The park encompasses a rich and diverse variety of habitats and environments, from formal gardens to ancient woodland, iron-rich mineral chalybeate springs to waterfalls, reservoirs to wild-flower meadows. It covers some 109 acres and is a grade II designated site in the “Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest”. Alexandra Park contains the…

Clipped yews line the driveway and are featured in the main gardens, a small maze-like topiary display section is enclosed by a low wall and principally entered through wrought iron gates guarded by stone gryphons. Side entrances to the topiary section include an extravagant archway in the south-west wall.The garden is extensively planted with roses…

Hole Park has been owned by the Barham family for the past four generations and is set in over 200 acres of superb classic parkland. The colourful gardens enjoy far reaching views over the hills, woods and fields of the picturesque Kentish Weald. They are a skilful mix of formal design and more naturalised planting,…