Prunus

At Heale and around and about this week it has been impossible to ignore the Prunus genus.

Heale have some crackers which are in bloom right now and are also beginning to cover the ground beneath them with a delicate flurry of petals. Soooooo beautiful. Magical really. Like the first dusting of snow.

My favourite in the gardens at Heale is the Prunus 'Shirotae' for many reasons. For its positioning in the garden, as you enter into the veg garden, there she is arching over either side of a bench, shining at you. It is known as 'Mount Fuji'. Of course, it is obvious, the pure white blooms, the flat crown spreading horizontally. I am lucky enough to have seen Mount Fuji and this tree makes me think of that time whenever I see it covered in blossom. Even before the blossom, its buds come, they cover the branches and all that promise awaits.

Also in the veg garden is Prunus 'Tai-haku', which is also known as the Great White Cherry. Heale has a fine specimen filling the top corner of the veg garden. As the blossom comes out so does a delightfully coloured foliage, bronze and red, unfurling into Spring.

Heale also has a delicate beauty flowering now in the Japanese garden rather appropriately: Prunus incisa 'Kojo-no-mai'. It is quite small and compact and has gorgeous little pink blossom which shines out at you from across the river.

I didn't stop to think that the Prunus genus includes Almond, Apricot, Peach and Plum. All with either pink or white blossoms. I think we always just think of the Cherry tree. 

(Of course it makes sense now)

The humble pink Cherry tree is one of my first memories of a tree and probably one of my fondest. The only tree in my Nanna's small back garden to her bungalow. She was a great Gardener and in truth has probably informed me in many ways whilst I was small and beyond. That tree managed to survive 3 children (my Father and siblings) and 9 Grand children (me included). It had a swing on it, we climbed it, we bashed it for cherries, we picked blossom, we snapped branches, we jumped on it's roots! I still remember collecting Cherry stones in a tub, endless hours grubbing about in the grass.

I have yet to own a Cherry tree but if I could, I would, and that blossom would be more than worth the wait.