A Tree-mendous Adventure - Day 1

It seems to be a common belief that the impression of England is that we are a nation of gardeners and have a strong association with trees, forests and woodland.  However, all that can now be heavily questioned, as you may discover that it is Germany who is setting the precedent for trees.

Through my internship, I have been fortunate to spend some time out in Hamburg, Germany where the legendary Lorenz Von Ehren tree nursery resides.

On Sunday evening I had my bags packed ready for a taxi to take me to London Bridge Rail Station at 03:30am.  It would have been 3 different bus journeys to London Bridge at that time in the morning, so I opted for the taxi.  From there I had to catch the train to London Gatwick.  It is never easy getting from A to B in London, especially at that time in the morning.  After pretty much all night travelling, I arrived in Hamburg and was escorted by Uwe, the taxi driver to Lorenz Von Ehren site.

It is a strange feeling when you have read about a place or seen photos of a place, and then you finally arrive at the place for real.

I met with Konstanze, one of the Sales Managers who deals with Great Britain (which was a relief, as my German lessons from school is very much undermined by Konstanze's English – or pretty much all of the staff their).  It is an understatement to say that it does make you wish you could be fluent in German.

However, I was driven round the site, and I could not honestly believe the scale and magnitude of  the site.  This is one serious tree operation.  It is basically a tree farm.  There would be one field of Betula Pendula – 20 years, one filed of Acer platinoides – 30 years, a field of Tilia.  Moreover, I do not believe anything comes close to this in the UK.  We have lots to learn and could may well benefit from the German’s work ethic and efficiency.

There are fields and fields of trees planted, as far as the eye can see.

I was then put with a team to work with for the rest of the afternoon.  Polish must be a pre-requisite, and English speaking is pretty much redundant, so as you can imagine, it was a pretty solitary affair.  I had to understand what we were supposed to be doing by watching someone first, and then hopefully comprehend it and get on with it.

That afternoon, we were getting 8 Tilia cordata (about 30 years old and weighing at least 5 tonnes each) ready for a delivery.  The trees had already been lifted in the morning and needed to be tied up and then lifted onto lorries using massive machinery.  It makes lifting the trees look completely effortless.  The whole operation of Von Enrens is completely machinery dependent.

Once, that task was complete, we then went to a field of Quercus roba where we battled with the cold and brutal Hamburg wind and straightened up the oaks that had been blown slanted out of the ground.  A very difficult task to do if low on morale indeed.  I learnt the hard way with this as I had only 3 hours sleep and did not bring enough layers of clothing with me, so I pretty much shivered for the rest of the afternoon.  To top it all at the end of the day, I got lost and could not find the place where I was staying.  After about one hour, running through the woods, and managing to ask a stranger in German where the Hotel Rosengarten is, I managed to get back to the warmth.  Although now I was boiling hot from running around for the last hour.  He who chops the wood warms himself twice…I suppose.

Pictures soon to follow.