When a Liquidambar 8 metres tall leaves our 33 hectares in Amarante bound for a site in Lisbon, Munich or Amsterdam, it is not just being transported — it is moving house.
When a Liquidambar 8 metres tall leaves our 33 hectares in Amarante bound for a site in Lisbon, Munich or Amsterdam, it is not just being transported — it is moving house. And moving a mature tree is an operation in living engineering in which every technical detail counts.
It all starts with the rootball
The logistics of a mature tree do not start on the lorry. They start years earlier, in the nursery, with the periodic transplanting we carry out throughout the production cycle. Each transplant forces the tree to concentrate a dense network of fibrous roots close to the root collar — fine, active roots that fit inside the volume of the rootball and ensure survival once the tree is planted on site. A tree that has never been transplanted develops thick roots far from the trunk; when it is lifted, it loses the system that feeds it. The root preparation done in Amarante is, in practice, the first step in the logistics.
Lifting: the critical moment
Lifting follows a strict protocol, in line with the technical gardening standards (NTJ 08E) and the standards of the European Nurserystock Association. Some rules are non-negotiable: trees are lifted only during dormancy, and never when the soil is saturated — mud destroys the structure of the rootball and raises the load weight to a dangerous level. The rootball is bound with galvanised wire mesh or hessian to keep it intact. The trunk is protected with wide textile straps and the crown is carefully tied in 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 guarantees full traceability from the nursery to the final destination.
On the road: protecting what has been grown over decades
For long-distance deliveries — Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom — we give priority to enclosed lorries. The reason is simple: wind on an open journey causes severe dehydration of the foliage. Coordination at the destination is timed to the minute: the tree’s arrival has to coincide with the availability of high-capacity cranes and of 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 project
A mature tree that is well transported and well planted saves 20 to 30 years of growth. It delivers biological maturity that is ready to work — shade, scale, presence in the landscape — from the first day. But that result depends on a logistics chain in which every link has been thought through: from root preparation in the nursery, to the binding of the rootball, to protection in transit, to the coordination of planting.
It is this chain, whole and unbroken, that makes the difference between a tree that thrives and one that merely survives.