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How We Grow

Growing great trees is more than a passion.  It’s our business.

Our production inventory includes thousands of trees, and over 100 varieties that are excellent tree specimens for the nursery trade, and the landscape.

Brandywine Trees is a licensed Pennsylvania wholesale nursery growing in quantity and selling in quantity – with a modest 3 tree minimum (mix or match) to the nursery trade, or individuals.  We only sell in volume, and do not sell just one tree.

Our customers include arboretums, landscape architects, homeowners, municipalities, large landowners, tree connoisseurs, restoration projects, and more.

Tree Selection

We grow specific tree varieties based on their growth habit and adaptability to USDA zones 5, 6 and 7, but also on their origin, uniqueness, beauty, and rareness. 

A few of our trees are so hard-to-find that it would be a great disappointment not to grow these rare varieties especially for our loyal specialty buyers to enjoy.  Some native trees that use to be so common are now hard to find, but we strive to grow them.

Growing Methods

Our natural production methods are totally focused on growing healthy trees with amazing root systems.  We do not use chemical pesticides or herbicides, and all of our fertilizers are fully balanced and certified organic.  

Our special organic fertilizers include both macro-nutrients (NPK) and micro-nutrients (B, Cl, Cu, Fe, Mn, Mo, Zn).  Mycorrhizae is also added to every tree’s root system to produce extensive and well developed root systems.

Mycorrhizae greatly increases a root system’s capacity in the important exchange of nutrients and water with the soil.  This is highly beneficial to the trees, and to our buyers.  Few nurseries provide this.

Starting with healthy high quality seedlings, a custom organic growing mix, and our focused root development of the trees, we grow outstanding tree specimens that can only happen with a lot of care and attention at the individual tree level.

Although we have thousands of trees in production at any one time, each tree variety is grown and managed on an individualized level to produce the best results.

Root System Development

Our custom growing process focuses on the entire tree from top to bottom, but we focus heavily on the tree’s root systems because the roots are the future of the trees growth and health.

We start them in special pots and tree bags which help generate significant new root development greatly enhancing the root system, but also the root systems capacity to significantly increase its water and nutrient uptake.  More roots = more growth.

In addition, because our trees are Transplant Ready Trees™ and are not grown in the ground, they do not have to be dug out which causes significant root loss, and our trees are literally available 12 months of the year.

Tree Availability

We have a large local customer base in the Philadelphia tri-state region where we are located, and over 90% of the tree varieties that we sell, we grow ourselves.  We occasionally source trees from our grower partners based upon specific buyer requests, current tree stock availability, or market demand.  Other grower’s production methods that we source from may differ from ours.

Irrigation

Our irrigation systems are fed by mineral-rich springs flowing from the Brandywine River basin in Chester County, PA.   We treasure our natural water source, and protect it by not using chemical pesticides and herbicides, but also by conserving water and minimizing our usage.

Our larger trees are irrigated with highly-efficient drip irrigation which places the water directly at the root systems where it is needed the most.  This reduces our water usage by 50% or more. 

Growing Focus

All of our trees are organically grown in the healthy air and fed by the clean pristine spring waters of Chester County, Pennsylvania. 

Our trees generally go through two to three root-pruning pot upstages (very labor intensive, costly, and all trees are manually re-potted by hand). 

We grow Transplant Ready Trees™ with up to 100% of their roots included. Our trees are lighter, easier to move, easier to plant, and they flourish.

They quickly establish in their new planting location with their fibrous root systems with generally little-to-no transplant shock… and can safely be planted from March through December in USDA zones 6 and higher.

All of this extra attention and hard work benefits the trees, and our buyers.

We are life-long growers and tree collectors who fully appreciate high-quality gardens, and beautiful landscapes.

“We will not sell any tree… that we personally would not buy.”