‘The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago; the second best time is now'

A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in,’ runs an old Greek proverb. More than a century ago, an imaginative person filled a natural gap in the landscape of Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland by planting a sycamore tree. The outpouring of public grief over its felling two years ago was, perhaps, over the top, but it might serve as a rebuke to anyone else thinking of foolishly vandalising a much-loved landmark that should have been, in Wordsworth’s words, ‘too magnificent to be destroyed’.

The trees of today have enough problems as it is, whether being brought low from insidious disease, uprooted by violent storms or steadily destroyed by the nibbling of too many grey squirrels and deer, without being cut down for a laugh. The value placed on the Sycamore Gap tree of £450,000 for the purposes of the prosecution for criminal damage in court — evidence that wasn’t presented in the end — sounds extraordinary and has been hotly debated by arborists since, yet it says something about the importance of trees, ‘poems that the earth writes upon the sky’ in the words of American-Lebanese poet Kahlil Gibran.

The radiantly hued display that is presently providing such an uplifting visual distraction is only a part of it. Trees provide shelter, homes and food both for wildlife and for humans, not to mention the paper upon which Country Life magazine's words are printed. In the right places, they aid flood prevention and they are hugely important in the mitigation of climate change, a 21st-century concern that their altruistic 19th-century planters would not have predicted. ‘Trees where you sit, shall crowd into a shade,’ Jupiter promises his lover where’er she walks in the opera Semele, a soothing image those sweating in a treeless landscape could only dream of during the summer heatwave. Not only is their shade precious, but trees store far less stultifying heat than concrete and the invisible process of transpiration — the release of water vapour through leaves — quietly cools and refreshes the atmosphere. The greater the roots, the more effective the cooling.

Britain is berated for its low rate of tree cover compared with other European countries. This statistic is not entirely fair, as ours is a landscape of infinite diversity, but it is true that more planting is needed, in greater and more imaginative variety, according to last week’s National Forestry Conference. Blocks of Sitka spruce are no good: a range of trees is vital for resilience, longevity and wildlife, from goshawks to dormice. All is not lost, however, if a Chinese proverb is to be believed: ‘The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago; the second best time is now.’

This feature originally appeared in the October 15, 2025, issue of Country Life. Click here for more information on how to subscribe