Restoring elm trees in London Elms4London

Help us bring back the Elm

The Elms4London Initiative

The 2025\2026 campaign is now closed for this planting season.

Elms4London Mission Statement

The MPGA President, Hugh Johnson, and the Chairman, Nicholas Evans have determined that the charity involves itself with providing additional impetus and support to the further re-planting of elms across London with the use of disease resistant clones. It is planned to get sign-up from each of the 32 London Boroughs and the City of London, and in liaison with them, identify suitable sites for planting, and with local organisations who can accommodate & maintain the newly planted trees. It is envisaged that friends’ groups already in contact with the MPGA through its Bulbs for London campaign as recipients would also contribute towards identifying suitable sites for the early tranches of Elm planting. Latterly, assistance has been provided by our friends at London in Bloom who have spread the word successfully throughout their contacts, helping us to achieve a pan London campaign.

Alan Titchmarsh endorses Elms4London

As a child in the 1950s one learned to spot the silhouette of an elm tree, as distinct from an oak or a beech by the unique outline of its tracery of branches. Elms seemed to have a kind of towering grace, contrasting with the low-sweeping branches of the beech and the gnarled and cloud-shaped orb of the oak. Then came Dutch elm disease when 20 million of these beloved arboreal giants were wiped from the face of the British Isles. London streets were denuded of their oldest inhabitants as the sound of the chainsaw signalled the demise of the English elm. Along with them went the myriad of insects and birds they supported. The streets of our capital were purged of these valuable wildlife habitats and blue skies no longer peeped through the pleated leaves of these sun-dappled trees.

But hope is at hand. Back in 2011 I was honoured to plant a disease-resistant elm as part of a Central London greening initiative. Since then we have seen great progress in the breeding of ever more resistant cultivars. We can now bring back the elms to our city, secure in the knowledge that these new strains will allow our children and grandchildren to revel in the glory that is the elm tree for the century ahead.

It is a wonderful testament to the determination of our generation to save a tree which once was lost and now is re-found, thanks to Elms4London. This campaign has already funded the reintroduction of hundreds of robust disease-resistant elms throughout the Greater London area – each one of them planted in a site which will suit their scale and enhance their surroundings and the lives of those who pass them each day.

If you can help to fund this initiative with a donation, however modest, you will be doing your bit to rejuvenate our capital city in a way which helps conserve wildlife and contributes to the wellbeing of all those who encounter these glorious trees. We have the means to do so; it is our duty to those who come after to leave our city greener, brighter and healthier, thanks to the elm tree.

Alan Titchmarsh MBE VMH DL