Red / Oregon Alder - Alnus rubra - Standard Trees

Red Alder Trees - Large Standards - Delivered by Mail Order from the Nursery with a 1 Year Guarantee

Red Alder trees, Alnus rubra, will grow vigorously in very wet soil, but they do need full sun. Red alder has a neat, cone shaped canopy.
It can reach a height of 30 metres in ideal conditions, but 20 metres is more normal. The tallest Red Alder on record was 32 metres high.
Standard trees are the largest size that we deliver; you can also buy younger Red Alder saplings here.
Browse all of our other Alder varieties here.

How Standard Trees are Measured:
All the plants in the ornamental trees section are graded as standards, which means that they are measured by their girth in centimetres 1 metre above ground level (basically, their trunk's waist measurement). They aren't measured by their height, which will vary. So, a 6/8 standard has a trunk with a circumference of 6-8 centimetres and an 8/10 standard has a trunk 8-10 centimetres around. This measurement makes no difference to the tree's final height.
Standard trees are 2 - 3.5 metres tall (on average) when they arrive; they are the most mature trees that you can buy from us. We cannot tell you precisely how tall your trees will be before we deliver them.

General description of Red Alder trees:
Red Alder is a slender, elegant tree; unlike some other Alders, it doesn't tend to produce suckers. It is quite decorative in spring, when the bare branches are festooned with long red catkins. Red alder gets its name from these catkins and from its wood, which flushes red when a fresh piece is split and exposed to the air. The green leaves are crinkled and serrated, turning mid-yellow in autumn.

History & uses of Alnus rubra
Red Alder is native to the West coast of America, where it is also known as Oregon Alder. It was introduced to Britain in the late 1800's.
Although it is a hardwood, Red Alder timber is not used for high quality products and because the tree spreads like a weed, forestry companies in the past tried to remove it as much as possible so that more valuable trees would have more room to grow. This turned out to be a mistake, resulting in soil erosion and a drastic decrease in soil fertility in some areas. Like the rest of the Alder family, Red Alder has symbiotic bacteria living in nodules on its roots that improve the soil by releasing water-soluble nitrogen based compounds. Red Alder is now managed intelligently in commercial forests to benefit the main crop of trees. The global increase in demand for timber also means that there is more of a market for Red Alder wood, which is often used to build cargo-pallets and cheap indoor furniture.
Alders are especially useful for quickly binding loose, rocky soil.
Red Alder is the traditional wood for smoking salmon in America.

Notes on planting Red Alder trees:
Red Alder trees need a sunny site with moist or wet soil. They prefer rich, heavy clay but they will also grow on very poor, degraded soils. They will grow near the sea and although they are hardy across Britain, they aren't ideal for exposed sites or frost pockets in the North-East, where they will probably suffer some damage from late spring frosts. Common Alder and Grey Alder are the hardiest of the group.
Red Alder will not grow in the shade or on chalk.

Prepare your site before planting:
It is good to dig over the site where you plant a tree several months in advance. Kill the weeds first: for tough weeds like nettles, brambles and ground elder, you will usually need a glyphosate based weed-killer to get rid of them. When you dig the soil over, remove stones and other rubbish and mix in well rotted compost or manure down to the depth of about 2 spades.

Watch our video on how to plant a tree for full instructions.
Remember to water establishing trees during dry weather for at least a year after planting.

Tree Planting accessories:
Prepare your site for planting by killing the weeds and grass with Roundup weed killer.
You can buy a tree planting pack with a wooden stake & rubber tie to support the tree and a mulch mat with pegs to protect the soil around the base of your tree from weeds and drying out.
We suggest that you use mycorrhizal "friendly fungi" on the roots of all newly planted large trees: if your soil quality is poor, we strongly recommend it.
You can also improve your soil with bonemeal organic fertiliser and Growmore.

After you plant a tree, the most important thing to do is water it in dry weather. You will also need to weed around the plants. Watering should be thorough, so the ground is soaked. Let the soil almost dry out before watering again. Watering & weeding will be necessary for at least a year after planting.

If your trees do need pruning, it is ideal to do this in winter. Always hire a tree surgeon to remove large branches.

Special notes on caring for Red Alder trees:
Red Alder is a very tough tree that shouldn't need special attention once it has established.

Hygiene & Diseases:
Dead, damaged or diseased wood can be pruned off as soon as it appears.
Disinfect your pruning tools between every cut if there is any sign of disease.
Burn or dispose of any diseased material, do not compost it.

Read our full terms and conditions here.

Delivery: Any order with a standard sized tree in it has a basic delivery charge of £12.55 + vat.
Because couriers sometimes experience delays, we schedule delivery by week, not by day. Therefore, please plan your planting day for the weekend at the end of the delivery week or for the week following delivery, at the earliest.
You can choose the delivery week that suits you during checkout and we will email you the day before your plants are due to arrive.

Payment: We do not charge your card until we begin to prepare your order for packing.

Guarantee: If any plants die within a year, we will replace them. We only ask that you follow our planting & growing instructions and sent us clear photographs of the dead plants in situ, so we can help to make sure that the replacement plants succeed. You only pay for the delivery of the replacements.

Please note that our guarantee is void if there is a hosepipe ban in your area: your newly planted trees must be watered in dry weather while they are establishing. The best way to water is very thoroughly every few days: at least once a week if there is no heavy rain.

Our nursery has been supplying large ornamental trees to gardeners since 1949. Our website started in 2003, so we do understand the concerns that you may have about buying specimen trees online. If any of your plants are damaged when they arrive or if you are otherwise not satisfied with your order after you inspect it, please repackage it and contact us. We will give you a refund or send replacements and send a courier to come and collect the unwanted plants.