Cherry Blossom at The Alnwick Garden
Breathtaking in its beauty, but bittersweet in its brevity, the annual cherry blossom is synonymous with the arrival of spring and new beginnings. In Japan, the yearly bloom is somewhat of a national obsession with many Japanese believing that the flowering trees symbolise the transience of life. Delicate in both nature and hues, cherry blossom, or sakura, is beautiful and cherished, but agonisingly short-lived.
Every year, Japanese communities gather together for hanami (which directly translates as ‘flower viewing’) to celebrate the spring spectacle, often accompanied by a scrumptious picnic which is enjoyed under a fragrant canopy of colour. Whilst the fleeting blooms were first made famous in Japan, they appear worldwide and many are surprised to learn that The Alnwick Garden in Northumberland is home to the world’s largest collection of Prunus Taihaku cherry trees outside the land of the rising sun. Here for up to two weeks – often towards the end of April – large, ice-white flowers emerge from the pink buds of 329 cherry trees, turning the entire orchard into a perfumed sea of snow as far as the eye can see. At 7cm wide, the flowers are larger than most ornamental cherry flowers, bestowing these special trees with their common name ‘The Great White’.
The very existence of the Taihaku cherry orchard at The Alnwick Garden is somewhat of a miracle and can be attributed to an English botanist by the name of Collingwood ‘Cherry’ Ingram. Ingram spent most of his 100-year life travelling back and forth to Japan, working with conservationists, scaling mountains, and returning with scions to cultivate in his garden in Kent. For centuries, Prunus Taihaku had been a part of Japanese culture, but by 1925 the species had become extinct. After finding a rare specimen, Ingram was able to revive the species in his garden and then spent ten years trying to reintroduce the lost Taihaku to Japan. Until his death in 1981, Ingram would give scions of the cherry trees he grew free of charge to any commercial plant traders who showed interest, creating somewhat of a cherry boom in Britain during the 1960s.
The cherry orchard at Alnwick opened to the public in 2008 and quickly became a favourite attraction of the impressive and ever-expanding contemporary garden created by the Duchess of Northumberland. A meandering pathway leads you on a scented trail through the trees, and dozens of wooden two-seater swings provide a blissful perch from which to appreciate the wondrous arrival of spring. Although the blossom is undoubtedly the most impressive annual display to occur in the orchard, the delight of this collection of trees endures year-round. Once the blossom window is over, bronze leaves soon appear, giving the orchard an attractive foil before turning mid-green in summer and then a vibrant yellow and orange in the autumn, before the bare branches return once again over winter. Fascinatingly, each of the 329 Taihaku trees in the orchard is a descendant of the same tree nurtured in Collingwood ‘Cherry’ Ingram’s garden in Kent.
The annual cherry blossom usually appears at the end of April / beginning of May, however as it is influenced by climatic conditions, this can vary from year to year. For those who would like to experience peak bloom from the comfort of their home, The Alnwick Garden operates a live stream on their website known as #BlossomWatch.
Read the full article in This Is Northumberland 2024
