Sweet Chestnut (Castanea sativa) 'Marron de Lyon'

Sweet Chestnut (Castanea sativa) 'Marron de Lyon'

Sweet Chestnuts are one of my favourite trees. They were probably introduced to Britain by the Romans, and are still widespread in northern Italy where bees foraging on Chestnut flowers produce delicious dark brown honey. Sweet Chestnuts will only yield significant amounts of nectar at higher temperatures, so bees will only enjoy them in hot summers here. They have a lot more to recommend them as well, which is why they have been so widely planted here over many hundreds of years. Castanea sativa coppice well, which means they can be maintained as relatively small trees, and grow quickly. Their wood is high quality and burns well; we include them in our wood fuel collection.

'Marron de Lyon' is a grafted cultivar which produces much larger nuts than the native tree, and much quicker; they will provide a good crop after only 3 years, as opposed to 20. The cooked chestnuts are exquisite or, of course, you could use them to make Marron Glace! Our supplier is a big Sweet chestnut fan, and we look forward to selling more varieties over the next few years.

Size: 80-100cm
Flowers: June - July
Soil type: Most soils
Supplier : R.V.Roger Ltd.

Our 'Marron de Lyon' trees are supplied bare root. At the height of the lifting season there may be up to a month's delay between placing the order and dispatching due to pressure of orders, which are dealt with in date sequence, and the weather. Orders for Sweet Chestnut trees taken from March to October are confirmed for dispatch from November.