16-Apr London's Street Blosssoms

Summary

This April, London’s streets come alive with the subtle beauty of tree flowers, from the violet-blue blooms of foxglove trees to the delicate catkins of willows and poplars. Did you know the old rhyme about ash and oak predicts the summer’s weather, or that some trees hide their flowers in plain sight? Join us on 16 April as we explore the often-overlooked floral wonders lining the city’s streets, uncovering the stories behind these urban blooms. Don’t miss this chance to see London’s streets through a new, blossoming lens!

Article

Tree Flowers

The budding time of ash and oak gave birth to the old rhyme:

“If oak comes out before the ash
T’will be a year of mix and splash
If ash comes out before the oak
T’will be a year of fire and smoke”

The first prediction refers to a wet summer and the second to a dry one. In fact, ash virtually never precedes oak and the whole thing is complicated by oak producing leaf and catkin at the same time and ash producing its flowers before its leaves.

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A large number of other trees are now producing inconspicuous flowers and some such as elms are already fruiting. The excess pollen is often a problem for asthma sufferers. In the early part of the month, the ubiquitous London planes had no leaves but endless hanging balls of seeds, none of which will ever germinate. The lime-coloured flowers of Norway maples are now joined by their dark red cultivars which come a little later. One tree that produces large, highly conspicuous violet-blue flowers is the foxglove tree. Other trees now coming into flower include some species of Eucalyptus and the Judas tree.

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Going unnoticed throughout the month are the camouflaged catkins on many willows and poplars. A fine specimen of the Chinese necklace poplar Populus lasiocarpa can be seen in the twentieth century garden at Hampton Court. It still has bare branches, but they are decorated in long, twisted yellow catkins which can eventually reach almost 25 cm in length. In the same garden a specimen of the keaki tree Zelkova serrata is already covered in lime green seeds.

Three other less common but attractive flowering trees worth looking for now are the Kowhai Sophora tetraptera with its large yellow flowers, Azara microphylla with its small yellow vanilla-scented flowers and especially the snowball tree Halesia monticola.

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The latter looks like a cherry tree from a distance, but on closer inspection has clusters of snowdrop-shaped flowers with egg-yolk yellow anthers. A fine specimen of this tree can be seen in the Medicinal garden of the Royal College of Physicians where it was planted to commemorate the first person to measure sap pressure in trees and, rather more importantly for Londoners, blood pressure. It is also worth keeping an eye out this month for flowers on conifers. These can be quite discreet but not the bright ones on larches.

16-Apr London's Street Blosssoms Section Image