The Queen and Prince Charles have helped mark another big moment in the Platinum Jubilee celebrations as they placed a new tree in the grounds of Balmoral to mark the start of the official planting season that will help form a green canopy across Britain.
Her Majesty and her heir planted a copper beech tree on October 1st 2021 to signal the formal beginning of the push to ‘Plant a Tree for the Jubilee’. The tree will form part of the ‘Queen’s Green Canopy’ with planting taking place over the coming five months. The beech, located at the Balmoral Castle cricket pavilion, has been added to the Canopy’s online map of trees which was launched today. It will chart everything planted for The Queen for her Jubilee.
Over the coming months, groups, organisations and individuals across the country are being asked to plant a tree to mark The Queen’s lifetime of service. She celebrates seventy years as Monarch in 2022.
The Queen and the Duke of Rothesay, as Charles is known in Scotland, also met children from Crathie Primary School who were on a forest school visit. They spoke to them about their plans to join in the creation of the Queen’s Green Canopy. They are the first class in the country to take on the Queen’s Green Canopy Junior Forester Award which also launched today. They showed off some of their work with The Queen taking particular interest in a booklet they had created and presented to her, telling them she would read it in the car on her way to Edinburgh later to open the new session of the Scottish Parliament.
It’s hoped that thousands of people will take part in the Queen’s Green Canopy scheme which aims to provide a lasting legacy of Elizabeth II’s record breaking reign through a network of trees. Seventy areas of ancient woodland will also be re-dedicated as part of the Canopy while seventy ancient trees will be identified and celebrated to mark The Queen’s service to the United Kingdom.
The Queen planted the first tree for the Canopy at Windsor in March with the help of Prince Charles who, at the time, dubbed the idea a ”tree-bilee”. The Prince is patron of the Queen’s Green Canopy which recently took a starring role at the Chelsea Flower Show.
Tree planting season runs from October until March. More details about how you can get involved can be found on the official website for the Queen’s Green Canopy.
