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t was obviously ordained that Philip Nieuwoudt would eventually find himself running a tree nursery with his wife Tiffany. The South African born Philip’s surname - Nieuwoudt - means New Wood or Forest in Afrikaans. Their business is, therefore, appropriately and eponymously named, New Wood Trees. Based outside Stoke Gabriel, the nursery covers 80 acres in which over 10,000 trees are currently grown. The business was established in 2008 and is the only nursery in the UK that specialises in field grown, multi-stem trees. Although Philip’s surname is well suited
to his profession, he actually grew up in a desert with no trees around at all! Philip and Tiffany, who is English, met in South Africa and spent 8 years living together on the family sheep farm in the semi-arid region of the country called Namaqualand, near the border of Namibia and about 6 hours from Cape Town. The couple were kept busy with the arrival of their two eldest children and as well as running the 4,500ha farm, Philip focused on his passion for plants, completing a diploma in horticulture. In 2004 the family decided to settle in the UK. Looking for an opportunity to use his horticultural knowledge, he was introduced by a friend for a role at a major UK tree nursery. Coming from a part of South Africa where it barely rains, it seemed inconceivable to him that trees could be grown and harvested. His horticultural diploma only taught him about South African trees, so he had to learn everything about UK trees from scratch. In his new job he learned a lot about the ‘tree’ business, and soon the couple were keen to push out on their own.
They tried to set up in Yorkshire, from
where Tiffany originated, but it wasn’t clear it could work. “It’s too damn cold for me,” he chuckles. Eventually, they decided to relocate
“Multi-stem trees have been cultivated for those who don’t want to wait”
to Devon and quickly everything fell into place. They soon found some land in Stoke Gabriel: “Other than the fact we both love it here, the nursery is perfectly placed. It is the closest I could get to the equator and still be connected to the M5! The climate is friendly for tree-growing and the local soil is especially good. It is very well drained; no trees are growing in standing water. The local Torbay red soil is perfect as it has a neutral pH of 7 and there is enough clay content to keep the root balls together, which is very important. The trees are, therefore, easy to dig up and transport to their new owners. It couldn’t be better”.
Philip had been growing rather bored with the uniformity of commercial single stem tree growing in this country and was attracted to the creativity of multi-stems and the lack of rules and standards which apply to their standard stem counterparts. “I have a creative side and realised that
growing multi-stem trees would satisfy this and, importantly, no one in the UK was growing these trees on any significant scale. I like the fact that there are no rules which means you can do what you want and the end result is very sculptural and, in my opinion, beautiful.
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