Scots pine

Scots pine: how do you recognise it?

Habit

Tree of 20–35 m; conical when young, later with a tall, flattened or umbrella-shaped crown about 8 m wide on a long, bare trunk.

Needles

In 2s in a small sheath, 3–7 cm long, blue-green, stiff and often slightly twisted.

Bark

Grey-brown and deeply fissured at the base; strikingly orange-red in the crown, peeling in thin flakes.

Cones

3–7 cm, egg-shaped with a pointed tip, grey-brown; they only ripen in their second year.

Difference from black pine

Black pine has much longer (8–16 cm), dark green needles and no orange bark higher up.

Harvest and fruit: January–December · Pruning: May–June

Identify by feature: Needles in bundles · Peeling bark

Looks like it, but isn’t

• Black pine Pinus nigra: much longer (8–16 cm), dark green needles and no orange bark higher up. Difference from black pine

Why grow it?

• A tree with character: the orange-red bark glows in the evening sun.
• Grows where little else will: on poor, dry, acid sand.
• The seeds in the cones feed squirrels, crossbills and great spotted woodpeckers.
• An open crown that lets plenty of light through: heather, bilberry and ferns grow beneath it.
• Little work: once established it needs no watering, no feeding and hardly any pruning.

Scots pine: where does it grow best?

• Full sun: in shade it grows thin and lopsided.
• Poor, acid, free-draining soil such as sand or heathland soil; it copes well with drought but not with waterlogging.
• The fallen needles acidify the soil beneath: ideal for heather and bilberry, less so for a lawn or a border.
• Allow for 20–35 m in height and a crown of about 8 m: only for a large garden, a park, the edge of a heath or a copse.

Light

Full sun

Legal basis

Acid soil

Moisture

Dry

Size

30 m tall, 8 m wide

Hardiness

Throughout Belgium, no protection needed

Goes well with

• Heather: Flowers purple in August–September on the same poor, acid sand: together the classic heathland picture.
• Silver birch: Another light-loving tree of sandy soils: white trunks next to orange bark.
• Rowan: A small tree with orange-red berries for thrushes, which also tolerates poor, acid soil.
• Broom: Flowers golden yellow in May on dry sand, in the sun at the edge of the pines.

Good and bad companions

Goes well with

• Like the acid soil under this tree: heather, rhododendron, japanese skimmia, raspberry, highbush blueberry, witch hazel, broom, gorse
• Tolerate the shade under this tree: oregon grape, rhododendron, oleaster, japanese skimmia, garden privet, camellia, laurustinus, box-leaved honeysuckle

Scots pine: when and how to plant it?

1. Plant from October to April when the ground isn’t frozen; container plants can go in later, but not in frost or drought.
2. Choose a small, young plant (forestry transplant of 30–60 cm): a pine has a taproot and establishes best when young.
3. Never let the roots of bare-root plants dry out: plant straight away or heel them into moist soil.
4. Don’t add manure or compost to the planting hole: a pine wants poor soil.
5. Water after planting and during dry spells in the first year.

Care

Watering

Only in dry spells during the first year; after that it copes on the driest sand.

Feeding

Not needed: it is made for poor soil.

Needles

Leave the fallen needles where they are: they form an acid litter layer that heather and bilberry love.

Free-standing trees

Keep the lower branches of a free-standing pine: they give it a broad, natural shape.

Keeping it compact

A garden pine stays smaller if you pinch back the new candles in May–June (see pruning).

Tip: Love the look of a Scots pine but have a smaller garden? Choose a slow form such as ‘Watereri’, or keep a young pine compact by pinching back its candles every year in May–June.

Scots pine: when to prune it?

Pruning months: May–June.

When: Dead, diseased and broken branches can be removed at any time of year. To keep a garden pine compact, pinch the new shoots (‘candles’) back by half in May–June.

How:

• Pinch or cut the candles in May–June, once they have extended but before the needles have spread out: the pine then branches more densely.
• Never cut a pine back into bare branches: no new buds will form there.
• On a forest tree the lower branches die off on their own; saw them off cleanly, just outside the branch collar.

Caution: Never remove a large part of the green crown at once: a pine cannot recover from hard pruning.

Pruning: when and how · Pruning calendar and basic rules

Propagation

Sowing

In late winter, pick closed brown cones and put them somewhere warm and dry: they open and release their winged seeds. Sow them thinly in March–April in a tray of sandy compost.

Self-sown seedlings

On bare sand it often seeds itself; such a seedling can be moved in its first or second year, with as much root as possible.

Grafting

Slow and narrow forms, such as ‘Watereri’ or the columnar ‘Fastigiata’, are grafted; that is a job for the nursery.

Scots pine: how does it get through the winter?

Hardy throughout Belgium: no protection needed.

• Fully hardy, even in the harshest winters.
• Wet snow can break branches: gently shake heavy snow off young trees.

Diseases and pests

• Yellow needles in autumn: The inner, oldest needles turn yellow in September–October and fall. That is normal: a pine only keeps its needles for a few years.
• Pine shoot moth: Caterpillars eat out the buds and young shoots; the shoot bends or dies. Cut off affected shoots in spring.
• Pine shoot beetle: A bark beetle that hollows out young twigs in summer; they snap off and litter the ground under the tree. Mainly on weakened trees: clear away felled pine wood promptly.
• Pine weevil: A weevil that gnaws the bark of newly planted young pines, especially where conifers have recently been felled. Don’t replant a fresh clearfell straight away.

Through the year

• January: Remove dead and broken branches; shake heavy snow off young trees.
• March: Planting season; collect seed from the cones.
• April: Last month for planting bare-root trees; sowing.
• May: Pinch the candles to keep a garden pine compact; the small male cones shed yellow pollen.
• June: Last month for shortening the candles.
• July: Water young trees in dry spells.
• September: The oldest needles turn yellow and fall: normal.
• October: Planting season starts.
• November: Plant bare-root and container trees.

What can you use it for?

Wood

Resinous, strong timber for beams, posts and planks; once used in huge quantities as pit props.

For wildlife

The seeds in the cones feed squirrels, crossbills and great spotted woodpeckers.

Also used for

The resin was once used to make turpentine and pitch.

Edible and useful

Young shoots (May)

The young, pale green shoots (‘candles’) in May, while they are soft and no more than 5 cm long. They taste fresh, resinous and slightly lemony: for syrup, vinegar or flavoured sugar. Take at most one shoot per branch and never the leading shoot, or that branch will stop growing.

Needles (January–December)

Green needles can be picked all year round for tea. Choose young, fresh green needles from healthy branches.

Storing

Fresh shoots keep for a few days in the fridge; you can also freeze them. Needles are best picked fresh when you need them; dried, they keep for a few months in a closed jar.

Caution: Never confuse a pine with yew: yew has flat needles set singly along the twig, red berries, and is deadly poisonous. Pines carry their needles in bundles (in pairs on Scots pine) held in a papery sheath. Drink pine-needle tea in moderation and not during pregnancy. Only pick from trees on your own land or with permission, well away from busy roads and sprayed fields, and never eat anything you have not identified with certainty.

Eating and using is at your own risk: see the terms of use.

Recipes

• Pine-shoot syrup (Syrup · ± 0.7 litre · 45 min + overnight steeping)
• Pine-needle tea (Tea · 2 cups · 15 min)
• Shortbread with pine shoots (Dish · ± 24 biscuits · 30 min + 1 hr resting + 15 min baking)
• Pine needle salt (Dried · ± 1 small jar of 150 ml · 20 min + 1 hr drying)

Good for wildlife

Birds

Berries, seeds or insects as food, or a place to nest.

Caterpillars

Host plant: caterpillars of butterflies or moths eat the leaves.

Did you know?

• In the Campine region of northern Belgium it was planted on a massive scale for pit props for the Limburg coal mines.
• The resin was once used to make turpentine and pitch.
• The crossbill has crossed bill tips, which it uses to prise apart the scales of pine cones to reach the seeds.
• No other pine has a larger natural range: Scots pine grows from Scotland and Spain to deep into eastern Siberia.
• After the last Ice Age it was one of the first trees in the Low Countries, but broadleaved trees later crowded it out. So almost all pine woods here have been planted.