The Scottish government has opened the UK's largest glasshouse to support Forestry and Land Scotland to almost treble the production.

Scotland’s First Minister John Swinney opened the new modern glasshouse located at Newton Nursery, near Elgin, on Tuesday 12 August.

The new facility is the UK’s largest tree-growing glasshouse at approximately 12,000m2 (2.96ac) in size.

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It aims to support Forestry and Land Scotland to almost treble tree production from 7m to almost 20m trees per year by 2029. Stock produced will be mostly conifer species such as Lodge Pole Pine, Scots Pine, Sitka and Norway Spruce, which are the backbone of Scotland’s £1 billion forestry industry.

The upgrade, with £20m funded from the Scottish government and a further £6m from Forestry and Land Scotland will contribute to targets set out by the Scottish government for woodland creation and to support the sustainable management of national forests and land.

Growing trees

It is expected to provide a consistent supply of high-quality trees to publicly managed forests, supporting rural economies, improving biodiversity, and sequestering carbon. Seedlings were planted at the redeveloped facilities in March 2025 with 12 million trees already established to date.

The new glasshouse will provide a more controlled growing environment, meaning seedlings are less vulnerable to damage from extreme weather events and competition from weeds. Trials show germination rates could be improved by as much as 60%, demonstrating a much more efficient use of valuable seeds.

Newton nurseries are the first tree producers in the world to use Tape4Trees innovative system technology involving mechanically planting seedlings that have been germinated in special cells joined in a continuous ribbon of tape. This technique is capable of planting over 1 million trees in a day.