We take great care in delivering healthy trees to your doorstep. Each order is hand-picked, carefully packaged, and shipped using trusted couriers to ensure safe arrival.
Delivery Times
Standard Delivery (3–5 working days): £6.95
Express Delivery (1–2 working days): £12.95
Free Delivery: On all orders over £100
Packaging
All trees are shipped in eco-friendly recyclable packaging. Roots are securely wrapped to retain moisture during transit, keeping your tree healthy and ready for planting.
Delivery Areas
We currently deliver across the UK mainland. Unfortunately, we cannot deliver to Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man, or the Channel Islands due to plant health regulations.
Order Tracking
Once your order has been dispatched, you will receive a tracking link by email so you can follow your tree’s journey from our nursery to your garden.
Special Notes
If you require delivery on a specific date (e.g., birthday gift, landscaping project), please add a note at checkout and we’ll do our best to accommodate.
Honey fungus is a spreading, parasitic fungus that lives on trees, woody shrubs, and occasionally herbaceous perennials.
It plays a crucial role in the regeneration of forests: at the destruction end! It is capable of killing complete woodlands, which is wonderful for the churning gyre of biodiversity and evolution, but no fun for the human owners of those trees.
It's one of the biggest living organisms in the world. The largest recorded honey fungus is nearly 4 miles square and several thousand years old.
Characteristics
Honey fungus spreads through bootlace-like structures called rhizomorphs, which grow under the soil at a rate of about 1 metre a year.
Rhizomorphs are red-brown or black and usually hard to find.
Mushrooms appear in winter between November and January on wood, growing in dense clusters with sticky, yellow-brown caps.
How Does it Kill?
Honey fungus kills its hosts by growing through the tree and encircling the cambium layer at ground level, cutting off the supply of sap and nutrients.
Infected plants will suddenly start to die back or fail to produce leaves in the spring.
Resin can seep from the trunks of conifers
A "swan song" may occur where plants under attack flower and fruit before dying.
Affected plants are covered in mycelium under the bark, a white fungal sheet, which has a strong mushroom smell.
Unlike most parasites, which need a living host, honey fungus can kill its host and continue living on the decaying matter for many years.
Honey fungus symptoms
The die back of upper parts of the plant. This can happen quickly, particularly in hot dry weather, or may take years to gradually kill off branches.
The leaves may fail to develop in spring, or be smaller and paler than usual.
The plant may fail to flower, or in some cases suddenly flower and fruit profusely before dying.
There can be signs of cracking and bleeding at the base of the trunk or stem. The red-brown rhizomorphs can sometimes be seen between the bark and the wood of trees.
The fruiting bodies of the fungi are honey coloured toadstools. They may be seen in autumn growing on infected wood, at the base of a tree or on a nearby stump.
Below the ground, the tree roots steadily rot from the ends inwards.
The base of the trunk is often covered in white fungal strands (smelling strongly of that damp mushroomy odour) that can spread up between the bark and the wood, in severe cases for up to a metre.
The bark on the left has white strands of Honey Fungus mycelium, unlike the healthy bark on the right.
Treating honey fungus infections
At present, there is no chemical fungicidal control for honey fungus.
To reduce the impact of honey fungus in your garden:
Remove infected plants: Take out infected plants and as much of their root system as possible to prevent the fungus from spreading. If a tree is too big to pull, have the stump ground out until it is at least 8 inches (20cm) below soil level.
Prevent future infections: Get rid of trees that have died for other reasons and disinfect all tools after removal of infected material.
Improve soil quality: Mulch regularly with good organic matter to keep plants healthy and less vulnerable to honey fungus attacks.
Destroy infected material: Burn all infected material, including stumps and roots, to prevent the fungus from spreading.
Create a barrier: Bury a butyl rubber lining at least 45cm down and 2-3cm above soil level to create a barrier that prevents rhizomorphs from penetrating.
Choose a resistant species: Once you have removed an infected plant or created a necessary barrier, replant with a more resistant species (see lists below).
Honey Fungus Resistant Trees and Shrubs
No woody plant is completely resistant to honey fungus. Only herbaceous perennials (and annual bedding plants, but they only live for a year anyway) are generally not at risk.
In my opinion, having lost more than a couple of trees to it down the years (a lovely opportunity to grow something else), not really.
Honey fungus is found in practically every location that has groups of mature trees and rotting wood on the ground. In the wild, it is "in balance" with all sorts of other organisms, playing an essential role in the ecological turnover of forests.
It is mainly orchard owners and forestry managers who have a real cause for concern. Firstly, it's their livelihood, and secondly man-made monocultures create the conditions where any pest or parasite can go berserk on the banquet before them, with no biological bouncers to bring them back into 'balance'.
Have you had any first-hand experience of dealing with honey fungus? Please do let us know in the comments box below.
Stay Connected
Choosing a selection results in a full page refresh.
5 Star Service Rating
Fast, secure, one-tap checkout
A Which? Best Plant Supplier 2025
5 Star Feefo Rating
Hand Picked, Delivered to Your Door!
1 Year Bareroot Guarantee
Platinum Trusted Service Award 2025
Sign In
Saved items