When a Liquidambar 8 metres tall leaves our 33 hectares in Amarante bound for a site in Lisbon, Munich or Amsterdam, it is not simply being transported — it is moving home.
When a Liquidambar 8 metres tall leaves our 33 hectares in Amarante bound for a site in Lisbon, Munich or Amsterdam, it is not simply being transported — it is moving home. And moving a mature tree home is a feat of living engineering in which every technical detail counts.
It all begins with the root ball
The logistics of a mature tree do not begin with the lorry. They begin years earlier, at the nursery, with the periodic transplanting we carry out across the production cycle. Each transplant forces the tree to concentrate a dense network of fine, feeding roots close to the collar — fine, active roots that fit within the volume of the root ball and that secure survival once the tree is installed on site. A tree that has never been transplanted develops thick roots far from the trunk; when lifted, it loses the system that feeds it. The root preparation done in Amarante is, in practice, the first step of the logistics.
The lifting follows a rigorous protocol, aligned with the technical standards for landscaping (NTJ 08E) and the standards of the European Nurserystock Association. There are non-negotiable rules: a tree is only lifted during vegetative dormancy, never with saturated soil — mud destroys the structure of the root ball and raises the load weight dangerously. The root ball is bound with galvanised wire mesh or hessian cloth to keep it intact. The trunk is protected with wide textile straps and the canopy tied off properly to prevent breakage in transit.
Each specimen travels with its plant passport, the document that certifies plant health and complies with Regulation (EU) 2017/2313 — a legal requirement that ensures full traceability from the nursery to the final destination.
On the road: protecting what took decades to growFor long-distance deliveries — Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom — we favour enclosed lorries. The reason is simple: wind during open transport causes severe dehydration of the foliage. Coordination at the destination is exact to the minute: the tree's arrival has to coincide with the availability of high-capacity cranes and the planting teams. On arrival, unloading is immediate — overheating of the roots inside the lorry can undo what weeks of preparation have built.
Why this matters for your projectA mature tree well transported and well installed spares 20 to 30 years of growth. It delivers biological maturity ready to perform — shade, scale, landscape presence — from day one. But that result depends on a logistics chain in which every link has been thought through: from root preparation at the nursery, to the binding of the root ball, to protection in transit, to the coordination of the planting.
It is this chain, whole and unbroken, that makes the difference between a tree that thrives and one that merely survives.