The weather was breezy and dull, but mercifully not wet, for our visit to Happy Valley to look at trees. We concentrated on the field to the east of the car-park in which the bulk of trees were planted by volunteers in 2006, with a number of smaller additions since. The top (northern) side of the field is mainly composed of Orkney and Scottish native species and we looked at Downy Birch, Hawthorn, Aspen, Hazel, Field Maple, Tea-leaved and Grey Willow and discussed the difference between Grey and Common Alder. Throughout the field we sadly noted the presence of Ash Dieback disease with some young trees almost bare, whilst others showing signs of shooting again from the base and some remained apparently untouched.

 

Moving on to the southern side of the field (adjacent to the mature wood), we were in an area planted with more non-native species, some of which are quite rare in Orkney. We noted Oak - and considered the characteristics of English and Sessile Oaks, concluding that some were hybrids between the two species. The most unusual Oaks were the Evergreen or Holm Oak (and the Turkey Oak in the garden). We saw Sweet Chestnuts and Lime trees growing strongly (and decided that identification of the latter needed to be done earlier in the summer when the hairs on the leaves could be more clearly seen). Moving onto conifers we passed a large healthy Sitka Spruce and some fine young Western Hemlock. The Nordmann Fir was bedecked with magnificent cones. We compared and contrasted several larch trees, to see the difference between Japanese, European and Hybrid larches, concluding that there were Hybrid Larch present and later deciding that the large specimen in the garden was a Japanese Larch.

 

We finished with a walk through the mature wood created by Edwin Harrold from the late 1940s onwards. Sadly some of the more unusual species in the older wood have succumbed to the shade cast by the more dominant Sycamores. The large Monkey Puzzle remains though, as well as a small Dombey’s Southern Beech in the garden.

All in all a very enjoyable afternoon.