stick to winter sowing seeds of straight species, instead of hybrids. A few trees and shrubs that perform well when winter sown include: Oaks, maples, hazelnuts, hickories, walnuts, holly, beech ...

Each summer, like clockwork, millions of beech trees throughout Europe sync up, tuning their reproductive physiology to one another. Within a matter of days, the trees produce all the seeds they ...

Trees use seeds as a principal means of establishing their next generation in the natural world. Seeds serve as a delivery system for the transfer of genetic material from one generation to the next.

Dr Hacket-Pain added: "Normally, beech minimises the proportion of seeds lost to animals that eat their seeds through cycles of starvation and satiation, but more regular reproduction breaks these ...