Specifying and Procuring Trees for a Street or Park Planting

A street or park planting fails at the specification more often than at the planting. A clause that asks for a height and a pot gets a tall tree in a small pot. A clause that asks for a calliper, a height, a container volume and a root ball test, and names the standard they come from, gets a tree that stands up in its tenth year. The one idea that matters most is that the specification is the order, and the grower grows to it or declines it.

This page explains how a council, a landscape architect, an arborist or a school writes and procures a tree order. It covers the standard to specify against, what to put in the clause, how the trade grows and grades advanced trees, where the growers are, the tender or quote process and the inspection at the nursery and at delivery. Standards Australia's AS 2303:2018 Tree stock for landscape use is the specification most Australian councils and landscape architects write to. It draws on that standard and on HortOS, a free directory of Australian wholesale plant growers with their published availability and trade prices. Street trees and canopy covers what advanced stock costs and who holds it; this page covers how to buy it.

Quick facts

The standard	Standards Australia's AS 2303:2018 Tree stock for landscape use is the specification most Australian councils and landscape architects write to.
The clause	Species and cultivar, calliper at the measured height, overall height, clear stem, container volume or root ball size, single leader or multi stem, the standard's grade, and the inspection right.
Where the trees are	On 24 September 2026, 79 growers in New South Wales, 49 in Queensland and 49 in Victoria listed advanced tree stock on HortOS, with 5 in South Australia and 4 in Western Australia, so a project outside the three eastern states usually buys across a border and pays the freight.
What they cost	In the September 2026 Index edition the median trade price across growers was $120 for a 45 litre bag, $295 for a 100 litre bag and $650 for a 200 litre bag, ex GST. For a single species such as the evergreen magnolia most growers list, the medians were $155 at 45 litres, $345 at 100 litres and $750 at 200 litres.
Lead time	A tree at 45 litres or #15 is two to three years in the nursery and a 200 litre or #65 tree five or more. Trees for a season are booked the season before; a run of one cultivar is grown to order.
Inspection	Tag the trees at the nursery before dispatch and check again at delivery. A tree that fails the root ball or the stem test is refused at the gate, not planted and argued about.

The standard and the clause

Standards Australia's AS 2303:2018 Tree stock for landscape use is the specification most Australian councils and landscape architects write to. It sets how a tree is described by height, calliper and container volume, how the three relate for a well grown tree, and the root ball and stem checks a buyer may apply at delivery. NATSPEC's Specifying Trees is the trade's guide to writing the clause.

A clause written to the standard has the same parts whatever the market. The species and cultivar, with the botanical name. The calliper, measured where the standard says. The overall height and the clear stem height. The container volume for container grown stock or the root ball diameter for field grown. Whether the tree is a single leader or a multi stem. The grade or class in the standard's words. Where and when the buyer may inspect, and what the buyer may refuse. A clause that names the standard and gives those figures can be priced by any grower; one that says advanced tree, 2 metres, leaves the grower to guess.

How the trade grows and grades a tree

A tree reaches the sizes a street planting uses by being potted on, from a tube through a 200 mm pot and a 300 mm pot to a 100 litre bag and larger, or by being grown in the field and dug with a root ball. Each move costs a season and the price steps up with it. In the September 2026 Index edition the median trade price across growers was $120 for a 45 litre bag, $295 for a 100 litre bag and $650 for a 200 litre bag, ex GST. For a single species such as the evergreen magnolia most growers list, the medians were $155 at 45 litres, $345 at 100 litres and $750 at 200 litres.

Two things on a list tell a buyer how a tree was grown. The container volume says how long the tree has had to build a root system, and the standard says what volume a tree of a given calliper should be in. The field grown or ex ground label says the tree will arrive with a root ball, bagged or in a wire basket, and needs a crane or a loader rather than a trolley. Plant grades and container sizes by market explains the size names, and what makes a nursery plant good quality the root, stem and hardening checks.

Where the trees are, and booking them

On 24 September 2026, 79 growers in New South Wales, 49 in Queensland and 49 in Victoria listed advanced tree stock on HortOS, with 5 in South Australia and 4 in Western Australia, so a project outside the three eastern states usually buys across a border and pays the freight. The state hubs (New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia) list every grower by town, and each plant page shows the growers listing a tree by size. A specifier can therefore see before the tender whether the species and size the design calls for is grown within freight distance or must be grown to order.

The timetable follows from the growing time. A tree at a 100 litre bag spent two to three years in the nursery. A project that wants two hundred of one cultivar at one size in one week books them the season before, and often pays a deposit to have them held and potted on. A project that wants fifty mixed trees for a park buys from current lists and takes what the lists hold. Lead times, pre-orders and contract growing explains both routes.

Tender, quote and inspection

• Price on the same clause. Send the specification, the counts and the dispatch window to three or more growers and ask for a price ex GST per tree, freight shown separately, with the growing location and the inspection date. Quotes on different clauses cannot be compared.
• Tag at the nursery. Visit before dispatch, or send the arborist. Check the calliper and height against the clause, the stem for wounds and included bark, the root ball by lifting a sample tree from its container, and tag the trees accepted. The tag is the contract.
• Check at the gate. Count against the docket, look at every tagged tree for transit damage and drying, and refuse a tree that fails. A refused tree goes back on the truck; a planted tree is the buyer's.
• Keep the records. The specification, the quotes, the tag list, the dispatch dockets and the planting map are what an audit, an insurer or a council committee asks for in year three.

The price check on HortOS compares the lines of a quote against the prices growers publish, which tells a procurement officer whether a tender price sits inside the range before the panel meets. Median trade prices in this guide are from the HortOS Plant Price Index, September 2026 edition: one price per grower, ex GST, freight not included, a median only where three or more growers price a size.

What to watch for

• Height without calliper. Height is the easiest figure to grow and the least useful. A tall thin tree in a small pot is the one that snaps in the second summer.
• Container volume without a check. A tree moved up a pot size the month before dispatch is in a big pot with a small root system. Lift a sample.
• One grower, one season. A single run from one grower is efficient until a batch fails. Split a large order across two growers or two seasons where the design allows.
• Pricing the tree and not the planting. A street tree's cost is the tree plus the pit, the soil, the guard, the stakes, the watering for two summers and the arborist's visits. The tree is often a third of it.
• Refusing at the planting, not the gate. A tree that is in the ground is accepted. Every refusal happens at the nursery tag or on the truck.

Getting it right

1. Write the clause to the standard: species, calliper, height, clear stem, container or root ball, form, grade and the inspection right.
2. Check the plant pages and the state hubs for who lists the species and size, and decide whether to buy from lists or grow to order.
3. Send the same clause to three or more growers for a price ex GST with freight shown separately and a dispatch window.
4. Book the trees the season before, with a deposit where the grower asks for one, and agree the inspection date.
5. Tag the trees at the nursery with the arborist, and refuse at the gate anything that fails.
6. Record the specification, the tags and the dockets with the planting map, and budget the two summers of watering with the trees.

A word of caution

The grower counts and prices on this page are what HortOS printed on 24 September 2026 and 21 September 2026, and the live pages change as lists arrive. The standards are their publishers' to interpret and a specification is a legal document, so the council's procurement rules and its arborist decide the clause. On stock, grades and dates the grower's word is the one that counts, and HortOS never answers on a grower's behalf.

Sources

• Standards Australia, AS 2303:2018 Tree stock for landscape use: how landscape tree stock is specified.
• NATSPEC, Specifying Trees: writing a tree specification.
• TREENET: street tree research and practice.
• Arboriculture Australia: the arborists' national body.
• Australian Institute of Landscape Architects: the landscape architects' institute.