The Essential Tree Selection Guide: For Climate Resilience, Carbon Storage, Species Diversity and Other Ecosystem Benefits

This exciting new tree selection guide marks a step change in approach that will lead to successful outcomes for trees and a better environment for future generations.

Gardens and green spaces are good for the health of humans and the wider environment and trees play a vital role in this. In the past, trees have been selected primarily for their ornamental value but these essential life-giving plants have the potential to deliver a vast array of ecosystem benefits, but only if we plant the right tree in the right place. To combat the damaging effects of climate change we need mature trees and species diversity, which means careful selection for site and function.

International tree expert Henrik Sjöman along with garden designer and passionate advocate for the environment Arit Anderson identified the need for a new kind of selection guide that focuses on the hidden benefits of trees and dedicated themselves to this visionary new resource.

Easily accessible text, backed by the latest scientific research, describes the multiple benefits mature trees bring to towns and cities including storing carbon, slowing down rainfall and cooling buildings. We learn that some trees excel at particular functions and how to select trees for specific conditions such as droughts and storms. The A-Z is a unique selection of more than 500 trees chosen for their resilience and a range of other criteria that will ensure their contribution to our future gardens and landscapes. A quick-reference Tree Selection Table completes the resource and will spark the tree selection process.

Henrik Sjöman is Scientific Curator at Gothenburg Botanical Garden, a Senior Researcher at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and an Honorary Research Associate at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. He specializes in how trees deliver ecosystem services in urban landscapes and the practical applications of this in terms of diversifying the urban treescape. Henrik communicates his research through numerous publications and by lecturing to urban planners, landscape architects, garden designers and tree nurseries throughout the world.

Arit Anderson studied garden design at Capel Manor College and rose quickly to success at RHS Chelsea 2013 winning the Fresh Talent category followed by a Gold Medal at RHS Hampton Court in 2016 for her own show garden which highlighted the need for renewable energy. She is a presenter for BBC Gardeners’ World, hosts a popular podcast Growing Greener and writes for national publications all of which enable her to open up the debate about the future of gardening in a changing climate to a wide audience.