Our tree nursery is in north-east Scotland, around 30 miles from Inverness. We grow trees from seed, known as saplings, to support timber production and woodland creation across Scotland.
In 2025, we moved into our new, modern glasshouse. It's about 12,000 square metres (m²) in size. That’s roughly the area of two football pitches. Thanks to this upgrade we've increased capacity from seven million to around 25 million trees every year.
Why Newton?
In the past, we operated several small nurseries across Scotland. Today, Newton is our only one. The local climate is drier and sunnier than other parts of Scotland. At 57 degrees north we get almost 18 hours of daylight during summer - an ideal climate for growing strong, healthy trees.
What we grow
Our skilled nursery team grow millions of trees each year using two methods: cell grown, and plug+1. Plug+1 means seeds start in a plug. They’re then replanted into our fields for a year (this is the +1). You’ll likely know the final trees as bare root.
Our core species include both conifers and broadleaves such as:
- Scots pine
- Sitka spruce
- lodgepole pine
- Norway spruce
- aspen
- alder
- silver birch
- downy birch
- rowan
- goat willow
Plug+1
Each spring, we start by sowing seeds in Tape4Trees, which is a long strip of small paper plugs. Each plug has a tree seed and peat free soil that helps the seed grow. We keep plugs in a controlled glasshouse where they start to grow. Then, we plaint the strongest seedlings outside in the fields. They stay in the fields for another year before we lift them and send them to their final planting site.
We’re proud to be the first tree producers in the world to use Tape4Trees technology. It means we can fit more trees in our glasshouse and transplant up to 1 million trees per day into our fields - 16 times faster than our older methods.
Cell grown
For cell grown trees, we sow seeds into seed trays, much like you might see in your local garden centre. A few weeks later, AI-powered cameras check each one and select the strongest seedlings. These are then transplanted into larger cell trays, which give the roots more space to develop. Our glasshouse team looks after these cells for six to 18 months, until they’re ready to plant in Scotland’s forests.
Our nursery is also home to other projects such as seed orchards for spruce and wild apples. (there could be links to the relevant blogs added into this sentence)
Our history of growing trees
Newton Nursery has a proud history. It began as a working farm, but in 1931 it became one of the first Forestry Commission nurseries. Since then, we estimate that more than 300 million trees have grown here. This goes some way to restoring Scotland’s forests for generations to come.
