Red Horse Chestnut Trees

Red Horse Chestnut Trees

The Red Horse Chestnut, Aesculus carnea Briottii, is a beautiful large tree (but smaller than a normal conker) and its flowers are red, pink and orange tutti-frutti coloured cones that contrast well with the handsome, dark green leaves.
It's a round headed tree that is ideal for avenue planting, reaching a height of about 15-20 metres.

Browse our selection of large trees, or our full range of trees.

Delivery season: Red Horse Chestnut trees are delivered bareroot during late autumn and winter, approximately November-March inclusive.
Choosing a size: Small trees are cheaper, easier to handle and more forgiving of less than ideal aftercare, so they're best for a big planting project. If instant impact is your priority, or if you are only buying a few plants for use in a place where it's convenient to water them well in their first year, then you may as well use bigger ones. All our bareroot trees are measured by their height in centimetres above the ground (the roots aren't measured).

Features

• Height: 15-20m
• Soil: Any well drained
• Use: Specimen, parkland, avenue
• Colour: Red, pink and orange flowers in May
• RHS Plants for Pollinators
• Bareroot delivery only: November-March

Growing Red Horse Chestnut Trees

They'll grow in any well drained soil, but aren't recommended for especially dry locations in the sense that they're quite drought tolerant as long as they're growing in fertile soils.

History & Trivia

Aesculus carnea Briottii is a hybrid of the European Common Horse Chestnut and an American chestnut known as Red Buckeye, Aesculus pavia. To the best of our knowledge, it was bred in France in 1858.

They typically will not flower for up to about four or five years after planting, perhaps longer in less than ideal conditions, so do not be concerned about that.

Standard trees are measured by their girth in centimetres 1 metre above ground level: their trunk's waist measurement. Unlike sapling trees and hedge plants, standards aren't measured by their height, which will vary quite a bit both between and within species.
So, a 6/8cm standard tree has a trunk with a circumference of 6-8cm and an 8/10 standard has a trunk 8-10cm around. This measurement makes no difference to the tree's final height.
On average, standard trees are 2-3.5 metres tall when they arrive, but we cannot tell you precisely how tall your trees will be before we deliver them.