New Shoots of Hope for Wedding Couples at Boconnoc

A year of frustration and patience, togetherness and isolation. A year of old plans unmade, and new plans made, only to be unmade again. At Boconnoc, and like many of our venues, they really felt for all their couples who needed to postpone or change their weddings because of the pandemic, and they wanted to do something positive and meaningful for them.

Keep reading for a really beautiful story, it certainly brought tears to my eyes and I hope you’ll love it just as much. Boconnoc is the epitome of everything we look for in a wedding venue, and this sweet gesture only cements our love for them.

At times this year, it has been easy to feel as if time is standing still. A sense of helpless waiting; ‘limbo’ or ‘hibernation’, as we wait to see family, wait for a vaccine, wait for a wedding.

But as every couple knows, love doesn’t really hibernate, nor does it wait. In fact, just like planting an acorn, over time, it grows a root system of its own, making its foundations stronger and deeper, feeling its way bravely through darkness.

As the old adage says, mighty oaks from little acorns grow.

This year, we decided to pot an acorn for every couple whose wedding had to be postponed or changed, a small gesture, but one which we thought would bring new shoots of hope.

As spring arrives in 2021, the acorns will have started to sprout, and in two years’ time the young trees will be ready to take root in the ground. When our couples return to Boconnoc to celebrate in 2021, they will be given their own potted acorn, which they can plant and enjoy for themselves.

Last month we had a wonderful day ruffling through Boconnoc’s autumn leaves, looking for ripe, plump, nutty brown acorns and then carefully potting them into their own containers before nestling them into a sheltered spot in the kitchen garden– ready to work their magic and germinate over winter.

In addition to supporting our couples, planting acorns ensures that more oak trees (and of course more acorns) can grow to support wildlife in future years. Mice, squirrels, badgers and jays are all searching for acorns in the autumn months – and most acorns get munched up before they have a chance to germinate.

How to plant your own acorns this winter:

Ideally, acorns should be collected and planted from mid-September through to the end of December.

Try to choose large, fat, ripe looking acorns, which are a warm brown in colour. Avoid the unripe green ones, or the really dark ones, which may have started to rot a little.

Loosely fill the pot with compost leaving around a 2.5cm (1in) gap between the compost and the top of the pot. (a yoghurt pot with small drainage holes in the bottom can be used).

Plant up to 4 acorns in each pot. Gently cover the acorns with compost.

Water the pot and place it outside, you may need to protect the acorns from animals and birds.

Leave your acorns over the winter to germinate.

The seedlings can be kept in this pot until the roots begin to emerge out of the drainage holes, when it can be potted on to a slightly larger pot. Tall pots are better than squat ones, to allow the roots to elongate. Repeat this as often as necessary.

The saplings may be kept in pots for two or three years, but if you find that it becomes too much to keep putting them in bigger pots, you can plant them in the ground when they are 12 to 15 inches high. Common oaks are suited to most conditions except marshy, very light or chalky soils.