Springtime is finally here. The temperature is slowly rising, blue skies are cautiously returning and the sun is getting just strong enough to warm your face. Most days may still be grey but after the driest February for 30 years nobody is begrudging the recent rain. The weather seems to suit the trees as they emerge from months of dormancy. Buds are swelling and a few early starters are already in flower.
Cherry plums reappearing
The tree that’s always first in the blossom calendar is the cherry plum (Prunus cerasifera), which flowers as early as February. It’s well liked for its cheerful appearance at that bleak time of year, bearing either white flowers (the purple-leaved plum, or Prunus cerasifera 'Pissardii’) or pink (the black cherry plum, Prunus cerasifera 'Nigra').
There’s a lovely black cherry plum blooming at 8 Burbage Road, but the biggest and finest in the area stands just outside our postcode at the Herne Hill end of Railton Road, right outside Pizza Hotline.
Cherry plums are unfortunately rather short-lived and we've lost quite a few to decay and storm damage in the last few years. Last year alone two came down on February 18 when Storm Eunice tore through the neighbourhood (one on Elfindale Road and one on Ruskin Walk) and two more succumbed to disease (again, one each on Elfindale and Ruskin).
But we’re happy to see that the council is once again planting them in Herne Hill. Elfindale now has two young Prunus cerasifera 'Nigra', both planted last year and already covered in pretty pink blossom. One tree is at no. 1, a like-for-like replacement for the storm casualty, and the second is a few doors down at no. 15.
A third should be arriving on Elfindale in the next few weeks at no. 68, to replace a diseased predecessor on the same spot. And we’re hoping for another over at Hollingbourne Road, on a stretch of pavement between no. 1 and the junction with Herne Hill where there used to be two or three. There are two freshly dug tree pits there, one for the black cherry plum and the other earmarked for a ‘Heaven Scent’ magnolia.
Some people will happily eat the fruit of the cherry plum, which the Woodland Trust says can also be used to make jams and wines. We’ve seen passers-by nibbling the small yellow plums from the little stand of three Prunus cerasifera - the parent species - between 85 Burbage Road and the entrance to the Edward Alleyn sports club, but according to Plantura magazine the sweetest fruit, ripening in August, comes from the black cherry plum.
Magnolias, pears and yoshinos
Just behind the cherry plums come the many magnolias of Casino Avenue, nearly all of which were in flower by the middle of March. The two most striking trees are at 93/95 (pictured here) and at 112. They’re hard to identify conclusively at this stage, before the deep pink buds have fully unfurled, but they look most like Magnolia × soulangeana, the saucer magnolia.
A little more subtle are the Northern Japanese magnolias (Magnolia kobus) like this one at 116 Casino. The flowers are a very delicate pink when they first open but soon change to a pure brilliant white. The crowns of this tree and its identical neighbour are almost spherical, so they look like fluffy white pompoms.
The many Chanticleer pears (Pyrus calleryana Chanticleer) in the neighbourhood are also just coming into bloom. They’re easily overlooked as blossom trees, and their modest little flowers are less showy than the magnolias or cherry plums, but they're charming nonetheless, like this cluster at 74 Danecroft Road.
The flower buds on the famous Yoshino cherries (Prunus x yedoensis) along Winterbrook and Stradella roads are ready to burst open any day now, and if you take a very close look you’ll see a few scattered white flowers that couldn’t wait for the rest. The tree pictured here is at 1 Winterbrook, but there’s another just over the road, near the side door of the Baptist Church, that’s also showing some early blossom.
Fiery berries
If you want something a bit more vivid you’ll have to cross Half Moon Lane to Ruskin Walk. It might still look a bit wintry and bare, but there are three trees there that are very reluctant to say goodbye to their autumn fashion accessories. They’re all Grignon's thorns (Crataegus x grignonensis) and they’re stubbornly clinging on to the fat, fire engine red berries that have been hanging on the tree for six months or more. These 'haws' (as hawthorn fruit are known) can even last until late April, and by then the white blossom and the glossy green leaves will be out too: a multi-season crossover.
You can tell by the 'x' in the botanical name that the Grignon's is a hybrid, although its exact parentage is uncertain. Hawthorns are known to hybridise easily, and this one was first noticed about 150 years ago as a seedling in an arboretum in northern France called the Arboretum de Grignon, in the little settlement of Thiverval-Grignon.
The Grignon's is rarely planted as a street tree, so we're very lucky to have these three specimens in Herne Hill. The one in the photo is at no. 40, but there are others at 79 and 29/31.
Eight wins… and one loss
We saw eight more trees planted in February, bringing the running total for the 2022/23 season to 72, with 13 still in the pipeline.
Three went into the garden square outside the Casino Avenue flats, completing the planting scheme for the site. They’re arranged in a shallow arc around the big ginkgo stump in the front left-hand corner, which is regrowing vigorously. One is a sweet, juicy dessert pear, Pyrus communis 'Durondeau', and the other two are plums (Prunus domestica): a Transparent Gage, with transparent yellow flesh, and a Bonne de Bry, an early season blue plum with greenish-yellow flesh.
There are also three new 'Heaven Scent' magnolias for the Hillcrest estate at the top of Sunray Avenue, planted along the concrete boundary wall adjacent to block 16-30. The Delawyk estate also gets a ‘Heaven Scent', on the lawn outside no. 32.
The final new tree is an oriental plane, Platanus orientalis 'Minaret', outside St Faith's church on Red Post Hill. It’s similar to the far more common London plane (Platanus x hispanica), with the same peeling bark, but the shape is columnar rather than spreading and the 5-7-lobed leaves are much more finely cut. They turn yellow in autumn.
On the debit side, we lost a new tree to deliberate vandalism in early March, just a few weeks after it had been planted. It was an Acer ginnala (Amur maple) at the bottom of Frankfurt Road, just down the hill from no. 71.
It was sawn through in the middle of the night and the crown dumped over the railings in Sunray Gardens. This was a healthy and vigorous little tree, about 3.5 metres high and just coming into leaf when it was killed. We've already asked our tree officer for a replacement.
We had a similar incident with a sapling in November 2021, when a London plane outside 25 Herne Hill was destroyed in the same way only a few days after planting.
Stradella work session
The Stradella Road volunteers came out on March 15 to give their nine mighty silver maples their annual haircut, lopping the thick shoots sprouting from burrs on the trunk before they become a nuisance to passers-by. You can see three of the neatly trimmed trees on the odd side of Stradella near the junction with Half Moon Lane, and the other six around the bend, on the stretch that leads into Burbage Road.
The silver maple's botanical name (Acer saccharinum) is confusingly similar to the sugar maple's name (Acer saccharum). Although they both hint at something sweet, it's the latter that's the main commercial source for maple syrup from eastern Canada and the northeastern United States. You can, at a pinch, tap silver maples to make syrup, but the sugar content is low, the syrup can be cloudy and the taste can be unpleasant if you don’t time the sap collection right. Some people clearly still aren’t deterred, like these enthusiasts in the woods of northeast Missouri. Don't try this at home!
More maintenance outings
We'll be arranging other visits over the next few weeks with your street leaders. We'll do some minor maintenance, have a look at the trees planted this season and also make sure we've got watering teams in place. The 70 or 80 newly arrived saplings will be getting thirsty very soon. We've had some very hot spring months in recent years so please keep an eye on the conditions and start watering when you judge that it's necessary.
You'll find updated watering guidance on the website, including requirements for our 13 new fruit trees. Unlike most of our young trees, which spend their early years toughening up in the nursery, the fruit trees are short and spindly one-year-olds. They'll only need 20 litres of water a week at most, compared to 50 litres for a big sapling.
We have four apples and four pears to water in the Hillcrest estate at the top of Sunray Avenue, on the sloping lawn between flats 16-30 and 31-45; two apples in the big green space lower down Sunray, near the pedestrian crossing; and the two plums and a pear that we mentioned above on Casino Avenue.
Trees for the coming winter
We're pleased to say that we've won new funding from the council's Cleaner Greener Safer (CGS) scheme for the 2023/24 planting season. The £6,000 award will pay for trees specifically chosen to give shade to houses and pavements during the long, hot summers ahead. Thanks are due to our councillors, Margy Newens and Richard Leeming, for their continued support for Herne Hill Tree Watch.
£6,000 will buy us six trees and their tree pits, but we might be able to stretch to half a dozen more by carrying over unused CGS funds from previous seasons.
The proposed trees will be medium-sized and ideally fast-growing and long-lived, with a thick leaf canopy that will cool down people and property. We'll talk to our street leaders about potential locations, but we have in mind gaps along residential streets with wide enough footways and deep enough front gardens so that the trees don't grow too close to the houses. Main roads with heavy pedestrian traffic will be another option.
We've put together a list of 15 species, all drought-tolerant, that ought to be suitable. But we've deliberately left out three other candidates in the interest of encouraging diversity. The Chanticleer pear (Pyrus calleryana 'Chanticleer'), the American sweet gum (Liquidambar styraciflua) and the ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba) are all the right size and can all resist drought, but they've been widely planted in Herne Hill in recent years. As the climate crisis accelerates, growing conditions are changing and pests and diseases that were once seen as a remote risk could begin to threaten the UK. We need a bigger portfolio of species to minimise the risks to tree health.
Here’s our selection:
Acer buergerianum (Trident maple). Three-lobed leaves like a trident turn red, yellow and orange in autumn. Photos: Van den Berk Nurseries.
Acer campestre (Field maple). In autumn leaves turn yellow, orange and golden brown. Useful to wildlife. Photos: Royal Horticultural Society.
Acer monspessulanum (Montpelier maple). Shiny dark green leaves turn yellow in autumn. Flowers in April-May. Photos: Van den Berk Nurseries.
Acer negundo (Box elder). Fast-growing. Leaves have 3-5 oval leaflets. Photos: Ebben Nurseries.
Celtis australis (European nettle tree or European hackberry). Toothed, pointed leaves and small purple-black fruits. Photos: Van den Berk Nurseries.
Corylus colurna (Turkish hazel). Long yellow catkins in late winter, clusters of nuts in fringed husks. Photos: Van den Berk Nurseries.
Koelreuteria paniculata (Pride of India). Sprays of yellow flowers in summer followed by papery bronze-pink fruits. Photos: Van den Berk Nurseries.
Ligustrum lucidum (Chinese privet). Evergreen. Clusters of small white flowers in late summer and early autumn. Photos: Royal Horticultural Society.
Quercus suber (Cork oak). Evergreen tree with thick, corky bark and leathery oval leaves. Photos: Royal Horticultural Society.
Sorbus aria (Whitebeam). Dark green leaves, white beneath. Small white flowers in late spring, deep red fruits. Photos: Royal Horticultural Society.
Sorbus intermedia (Swedish whitebeam).
Deeply lobed leaves. Clusters of small white flowers in late spring, red fruits. Photos: Van den Berk Nurseries.
Sorbus torminalis (Wild service tree). Glossy green leaves, red/purple in autumn. White flowers in spring, brown oval fruits in autumn. Photos: Van den Berk Nurseries.
Sorbus x thuringiaca (Bastard service tree). Leaves turn orange in autumn. White flowers in clusters followed by bunches of persistent red berries. Photos: Future Forests.
Tilia mongolica (Mongolian lime). Heart-shaped leaves turn yellow in autumn. Small, yellowish-white flowers in summer. Photos: Burncoose Nurseries.
Ulmus Fiorente, Lutece, New Horizon, Rebona etc (Disesase-resistant elm cultivars). See https://resistantelms.co.uk/ and https://disease-resistant-elms.org/. Information on Wingham hybrid here.
Zelkova serrata (Keaki or Japanese zelkova). Sharply toothed, finely pointed leaves turn yellow or orange in autumn. Photos: Van den Berk Nurseries.
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