Red Horse Chestnut, Large Trees

Aesculus carnea Briottii: Bareroot Red Horse Chestnut Trees in Standard Sizes

The Red Horse Chestnut, Aesculus carnea Briottii, is a beautiful large tree (but smaller than a normal conker) and its flowers are red, pink and orange tutti-frutti coloured cones that contrast well with the handsome, dark green leaves.
It is a round headed tree that is ideal for avenue planting, reaching a height of about 15-20 metres.

Browse our selection of large trees, or our full range of trees.

Delivery season: Red Horse Chestnut trees are delivered bareroot during late autumn and winter, approximately November-March inclusive.
Choosing a size: Small trees are cheaper, easier to handle and more forgiving of less than ideal aftercare, so they are best for a big planting project. If instant impact is your priority, or if you are only buying a few plants for use in a place where it is convenient to water them well in their first year, then you may as well use bigger ones. All our bareroot trees are measured by their height in centimetres above the ground (the roots aren't measured).

Features:

• Height: 15-20m
• Soil: Any well drained
• Use: Specimen, parkland, avenue
• Colour: Red, pink and orange flowers in May
• RHS Plants for Pollinators
• Bareroot delivery only: November-March

Growing Red Horse Chestnut Trees

They will grow in any well drained soil, but are not recommended for especially dry locations in the sense that they are quite drought tolerant as long as they are growing in fertile soils.

Notes on planting Red Horse Chestnut trees:
Horse Chestnuts are big trees with powerful roots, we recommend planting them at least 30 metres away from buildings. They will grow in any soil, including chalk, and young trees tolerate shade well. They are very hardy and mature trees are tough as anything, tolerating soggy winters followed by scorching summers without any set-back.

Prepare your site before planting:
It is good to dig over the site where you plant a tree several months in advance. Kill the weeds first: for tough weeds like nettles, brambles and ground elder, you will usually need a weed-killer to get rid of them. When you dig the soil over, remove stones and other rubbish and mix in well rotted compost or manure down to the depth of about 2 spades.

Watch our video on how to plant a tree for full instructions.
Remember to water establishing trees during dry weather for at least a year after planting.

Tree Planting accessories:
Prepare your site for planting by killing the weeds and grass.
You can buy a tree planting pack with a wooden stake & rubber tie to support the tree and a mulch mat with pegs to protect the soil around the base of your tree from weeds and drying out.
We suggest that you use mycorrhizal "friendly fungi" on the roots of all newly planted large trees: if your soil quality is poor, we strongly recommend it.
You can also improve your soil with bonemeal organic fertiliser.

Did You Know?

Aesculus carnea Briottii is a hybrid of the European Common Horse Chestnut and an American chestnut known as Red Buckeye, Aesculus pavia. To the best of our knowledge, it was bred in France in 1858.

They typically will not flower for up to about four or five years after planting, perhaps longer in less than ideal conditions, so do not be concerned about that.

Standard trees are measured by their girth in centimetres 1 metre above ground level: their trunk's waist measurement. Unlike sapling trees and hedge plants, standards aren't measured by their height, which will vary quite a bit both between and within species.
So, a 6/8cm standard tree has a trunk with a circumference of 6-8cm and an 8/10 standard has a trunk 8-10cm around. This measurement makes no difference to the tree's final height.
On average, standard trees are 2-3.5 metres tall when they arrive, but we cannot tell you precisely how tall your trees will be before we deliver them.