Streetwise Range

‘Streetwise’ Range Development

Hillier has had a long tradition of introducing new plants, either by breeding, collecting seed or from clonal selections.

Examples of our historic tree introductions are Betula utilis ‘Jermyns’, Prunus ‘Spire’, Sorbus ‘Sunshine’, Prunus ‘Snow Goose’ and Sorbus commixta ‘Embley’. The growers at Hillier studied the form of trees on the nursery and how they developed as they matured. As a result, key trees from popular species were identified as having perfect characteristics to withstand urban conditions whilst maintaining a sensible form for the street environment.

Clonal Selection
In order to replicate the characteristics of these ‘perfect’ street trees, propagation material was taken from the mother trees. This allowed the cultivation of new trees that  were exactly the same as the parent tree through vegetative propagation. This development process — identifying the trees and then propagating them in commercially  viable numbers — has taken two generations of nursery directors – formerly John Woodhead, and for the last 20 years by Hossein Arshadi.

Their labours have well and truly borne fruit. Six new cultivars were named by Hillier and the ‘Streetwise’ range was born. These trees are recognised as being the best within their species for growing in urban locations as they are extremely hardy, respond well to pruning, excel in their species characteristics and keep robust shapes into  maturity. Hillier Nurseries was awarded Grower of the Year in recognition of their work on this range in 2005.