The Trees I Love

A luminous and deeply personal celebration of the trees that have shaped one scientist’s life and can help save our planet.

Blending her talent for artful storytelling with her expertise as a botanist, biologist and biochemist, The Trees I Love is Diana Beresford-Kroeger’s love letter to the trees in her native species arboretum.

For over fifty years, Beresford-Kroeger has been cultivating a private research garden of species that are rare or endangered in their native habitats. She’s travelled across North America on tree-hunting missions, searching for perfect mother trees whose genomes give their offspring the best chance of surviving the climate crisis, carefully propagating their seeds and planting the hardiest specimens in her arboretum. Through her tireless efforts, she’s rescued crucial species at risk of disappearing, preserving their botanical heritage and biodiversity for generations to come.

In The Trees I Love, Beresford-Kroeger gifts us with an intimate portrait of the trees under her stewardship. Pairing her academic expertise with the wisdom of the ancient Celtic tradition in which she was raised, Diana illuminates the unique botanical wonders at her fingertips, with natural histories that highlight the beauty in every tree’s unique biochemistry. Each essay centres on a single species, revealing its hidden gifts, from its medicinal properties to its vital role in stabilizing our climate.

The Trees I Love offers us an intimate peek into Beresford-Kroeger’s garden and an impassioned call to action from a poet of the global forest, urging us to preserve our botanical past to safeguard our collective future.