The start,,,

... of what may be a saga.  In the search for diversity in our ash replacement planting, the  red horse chestnut has come to mind.  It grows well near here and has resistance to the chestnut leaf miner that makes ordinary horse chestnuts so unsightly in the late summer.  Unfortunately it is not available as seedlings or whips from nurserymen, and buying larger trees is expensive for multiple plantings.  We managed to get some chestnuts from a nearby tree, but the predations of squirrels means they had to come off the tree rather than the ground and are not quite ripe (will time spent in the banana bowl (ethylene?) help them to ripen!?).  They need planting while still moist, the correct way up, protecting from mice, squirrels, etc, and they should grow true to the original, even though they are a hybrid of A. hippocastanum and the smaller A. pavia (an American buckey bush).  No mention anywhere of difficulty with stratification, so we'll put them straight out with mouse and squirrel defences when/if they ripen.