A series following the 72 British mini-seasons of Nature’s Calendar by Kiera Chapman, Lulah Ellender, Rowan Jaines and Rebecca Warren. 

Dear Readers, just as the cherry blossom is reaching its height the weather has decided to turn blustery with a touch of hail. Such a shame! Once the cherry blossom is here, spring is definitely on the way. I am hoping that for my trip to Canada this year I actually coincide with cherry blossom season (it’s much later in those northern climes than it is here), but actually I noticed that, in St James’s Park, the blossom had mostly gone over. This didn’t stop people from standing under the few remaining trees to take photos though. Here, most folk are respectful of the trees and of other people, but in Japan a festival in an area close to Mount Fuji was cancelled this year, a victim of its own popularity – tourists were apparently entering people’s homes to use the toilet, littering and occasionally defecating in local people’s gardens. What a shame it is when a handful of people spoil it for everyone.

Here in East Finchley there is no official sakura, but there are a lot of lovely trees, so let’s enjoy it before all the blossom gets blown off. And I make no apology for repeating the  A.E.Housman poem at the end of the piece, it’s one of my favourites.

The idea of Hanami – cherry blossom viewing – seems to have taken off over the past few years. In Japan, where the idea originated, it’s very much a social thing, a chance to view the blossoms, meet friends, maybe picnic under the pink and white canopy. In Toronto (much on my mind as my trip approaches) they have Cherry Blossom season in High Park, with weekly updates on how the blossom is progressing (you can read all about it here). In the UK, the National Trust are currently publicising ‘the best places to see blossom‘ (and this isn’t just cherry blossom, but also some of their magnificent magnolias which should be reaching peak condition round about now). And in fact, here in the County Roads in East Finchley we have some very fine cherry trees of our own.

Here’s a lovely pink one at the junction of Durham Road and Creighton Avenue….

I love the way that the fallen  petals look like confetti…

And then there’s my favourite tree on Leicester Road…

And then there are some on Huntingdon Road. Apparently the pink rings at the base of the stamen indicates that the flower has been pollinated. Who knew?

And this one has blossom growing out of its trunk in a most intriguing way…

As Rebecca Warren points out in ‘Nature’s Calendar’, cherry trees became popular as street trees because they are small in stature (with a correspondingly small root run), and because they not only produce blossom but often have stunning autumn foliage. They really punch above their weight, both in a small garden and alongside a suburban road. But (whisper it) my favourite cherry tree species is not one of these cultivars, but the tree after which I suspect Cherry Tree Wood here in East Finchley was named – the bird cherry (Prunus padus) with its firework-tail flowers. It doesn’t flower until May, when  all the other cherries are pretty much over, and so it is a late-spring pleasure.

The delight of cherry blossom is that it is ephemeral – some years it feels as if you could blink and miss it. And the weather doesn’t help. On a blustery, wet day (of which we’ve had way too many just lately) you can watch the flower petals being torn from the tree  and sticking to the damp pavement. But what a pleasure it is to see it, after the long dark days. It feels important to stop and drink it in, however busy we are. And who said it better than A.E. Housman? He seems to capture the transience of both the blossom and the lives of humans so well here, in all its poignancy and resilience.

A Shropshire Lad 2: Loveliest of trees, the cherry now

BY A. E. HOUSMAN

Loveliest of trees, the cherry now
Is hung with bloom along the bough,
And stands about the woodland ride
Wearing white for Eastertide.

Now, of my threescore years and ten,
Twenty will not come again,
And take from seventy springs a score,
It only leaves me fifty more.

And since to look at things in bloom
Fifty springs are little room,
About the woodlands I will go
To see the cherry hung with snow.

Interestingly, what Housman is talking about is our native wild cherry (Prunus avium), which, as it grows to nearly sixty feet tall, is not a popular street tree. As Paul Wood says in his book ‘London’s Street Trees‘, a wild cherry can ‘give most of the Japanese cultivars a run for their money’ when in bloom. What a beautiful sight it is, and it shows how accurate Housman’s line about ‘the cherry hung with snow’ is.