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Cancel that expensive trip to Japan next spring, because cherry blossoms are about to bloom much closer to home.
Yep, from now on a quick trip to SE10 will scratch the annual cherry blossom itch. Greenwich Park has just introduced a new ‘valley of blossom’, planting 130 prunus ‘sekiyama’ cherry trees sourced straight from Japan.
Greenwich Park has already been home to a Cherry Tree Avenue since the 1950s. Since then, the path leading up to the Rose Garden on the west side of the park has come bursting into life every April and May when the 28 fully-grown prunus 'pink perfection' cherry trees bloom.
The 130 new shrubs have been planted along the hillside between the Grand Ascent – aka the climb up to the Royal Observatory – and One Tree Hill.
We should warn you that if you turn up over the next few weeks expecting vibrant pink blooms, you’re likely to come away a little disappointed. The new verdure has been planted as young saplings to assist their establishment on the park’s gravelly soils.
Once they’ve fully taken root, though, they will tower above the park’s existing cherry trees. Sekiyama trees grow to 12 metres high and 8m in spread, while Pink Perfection plants reach between four and eight metres at their peak.
The new plantings are courtesy of the Sakura Cherry Tree Project, which has donated thousands of the Japanese blossoms to sites across the UK since 2019 to symbolise the friendship between the two countries. Forget BFF bracelets, a bush is way better.
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