Habitat Creation Nursery Update: October 2025 - January 2026

By Sophie Carruthers

LUCT Trainee Plant Nursery Manager

2025 was a busy year at the plant nursery with over 5,500 plants grown and sent out to other conservation projects and starting the growing for Langwith. Our plan is to grow 10,000 plants for Langwith before next Autumn – though, we already have almost 5,000 of these ready! Despite this great progress, we always need to look ahead, as some of our plants take two years to grow from seed to a decent-sized plug.  

This Winter we’ve been preparing for the next busy growing season by having a bit of a ‘Winter tidy up’, including a stock review, creating more space in the beds, sorting trays and other maintenance work to make sure we’re ready for Spring. We also started our seed treatments; many seeds require specific conditions before they will germinate so we help this along by, for example, breaking down the hard seed coating with sandpaper or putting them in the fridge for a cold treatment – though, this Winter maybe it would have been colder outside! 

Winter at the Habitat Creation Nursery

Habitat Creation Nursery 2025 highlights:

·         Over 5,500 plants sent out to external projects

·         Approx 1,500 plants planted in Langwith, with about 3,300 more ready to go

·         Worked with at least 4 other wildlife/conservation organisations

·         2 new volunteers

·         1 new member of staff

Fen Creation Workshop

Planting on Langwith