You don't like to say a word against the horse chestnut just now, when the lovely flowers or candles are so visible, stately and cheering. But, a word of warning. Or a matter of opinion, if you like. They look so splendid standing in isolation in the middle of a park or field, or lining a wide avenue, as in the Phoenix Park. But in small spaces they can cause trouble by out growing everything else.
A chestnut planted in moment of aberration near to a small group of birch, has now grown so grossly that it will have to come down in the interest of the birch and others near it. The chestnut itself may have been put down with a thought for younger members of the family. By the time it was giving conkers in good numbers the children were children no more.
It's a pity to be slighting of a tree which gives so much pleasure with its shape and its fine greenery, even when not in bloom. You will see many spreading out over suburban walls in Dublin, but there can hardly be any used as street trees. Partly because small boys would put themselves and others in danger by throwing stones or sticks into the foliage to get the nuts. Moreover, the growing branches would be a regular source of pruning by the authorities.
M. R. Edlin in his Collins Guide to Tree Planting and Cultivation says that the timber has no modern commercial use and that the tree is valueless for plantations. If you read of big chestnut forests, in say, France, they will be the edible kind. The horse chestnut is aesculus hippocastanum, comes from Asia Minor where, the experts tell us, the nuts were used as a medicine for ailing horses, though it is said no horses here will touch them.
So, in short, it's an ornamental tree. "Under the spreading chestnut tree the village smithy stands." Yes, it fills an open space in a village, looks well on the green if it has one, may make a distinguished small group, even, if there are acres of space around it, but essentially, with exceptions given above, it is at its best standing alone. Be thankful for it at this time of the year especially.