National Tree Week: Francis Willughby's Experiment on the Best Layout Method for Planting Trees

It's National Tree Week! This year National Tree Week is the 22nd-30th November. It is organised by the National Tree Council and the aim is to get people involved in planting trees and appreciate the importance of trees to the environment. Its timing marks the start of the winter planting season, which is when the ground is most suitable for planting trees.

Since the time that Middleton Hall Trust was established, we have regularly observed National Tree Weeks with tree planting sessions. This was not only to help and recover the environment of the site but also because this Week coincides with another, rather relevant, anniversary for Middleton Hall – the anniversary of the birth of our famous naturalist, Francis Willughby FRS, who was born on 22nd November 1635.

Portrait of Francis Willughby, FRS. Courtesy of Lord Middleton.

Francis’ friend and collaborator John Ray was more renowned for his work on botany than Francis. However, Francis was interested in botany and did undertake three experiments at Middleton that involved trees. To mark the start of National Tree Week 2025 and the 390th anniversary of Francis’ birth, we will explain his three experiments in a series of posts. Then we will jump to another century focus on three foreign specimen trees that were planted at Middleton about 150 years ago when the style of Middleton’s gardens was changed to the Revised English Landscape Garden Style.

This first post focuses on Francis’ experiment with the various different arrangements of planting fruit trees in an orchard. His experiment aimed to determine which method was the most productive. Planting layout is still viewed as very important in agriculture because it determines many things including how much sunlight each plant receives.

Orchard at Middleton Hall, 2014. Photograph taken by Joanna Habart.

The main layout methods are: square; rectangular; triangular; hexagonal; and quincunx. In the square method, trees are planted with equal distances maintained both horizontally and vertically between each tree to form perfect squares. The rectangular system is similar to the square but has more flexible spacing between rows. The triangular system involves planting trees in a pattern so that they form an equilateral triangle, which means that every plant is the same distance from its neighbour. The hexagonal system is a version of the triangular system. In this method trees are arranged in a pattern where each one is surrounded by six others, which forms a hexagonal or honeycomb shape. The quincunx method combines elements of both square and diagonal planting and the pattern resembles the image of the five dots on the side of a dice.

Francis Willughby determined that the quincunx method was the best method for orchard planting. The main benefits of this method over the others are that it significantly increases the number of plants you can grow in a space and it also provides the opportunity for mixed planting.

Author - Debbie Jordan, Middleton Hall Volunteer.

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