Maritime Pine 40/60cm (P9)

Maritime Pine – Pinus pinaster is one of the most dramatically architectural conifers you can grow in a British garden. Native to the western Mediterranean coastline and widely naturalised across southern Europe, this striking evergreen has been admired for centuries for its bold, sculptural form and rugged personality. With a long, straight trunk clad in deeply fissured, reddish-brown to orange-red bark and an open, candelabra-like crown that becomes increasingly irregular and characterful with age, it makes an outstanding specimen tree for larger gardens and exposed coastal sites.

The foliage is genuinely impressive. Maritime Pine carries its needles in pairs, and they are among the longest and most robust of any European pine — reaching up to 25cm in length — stiff, glossy, and a rich blue-green to grey-green in colour. They give the tree a bold, textural presence throughout the year. In May, small yellow male flowers appear, and these are followed by handsome, shiny cones of 8–15cm in length that ripen to a rich chestnut brown and can persist on the branches for many years, adding to the tree’s year-round visual interest.

In maturity, Maritime Pine develops that wide, open, fan-shaped crown that so defines the classic Mediterranean skyline — but it’s equally at home lending architectural drama to a British coastal or country garden. It’s notably tolerant of salt-laden winds, poor sandy soils, and exposed positions, making it one of relatively few large conifers genuinely suited to life by the sea. It also handles drought well once established, and copes with both acidic and alkaline soils provided drainage is good.

Ultimate height
Higher than 12 metres

Time to ultimate height
More than 50 years

Ultimate spread
Wider than 8 metres

UK grown by ourselves at our nursery in Euxton, Lancashire.