The seasons are changing from late spring to early summer, and even though the weather is still pretty erratic the temperature is steadily creeping higher. Our mature trees are greening up beautifully but there’s a new crop of saplings that have gone in much later than they should have. They’ll require a lot of looking after if they’re to get through prolonged hot, dry spells.
Before we tackle watering, though, a quick plug for our new street-by-street tree guides. Click on the MAPS tab and then the picture of the Red Post Hill street sign and you’ll see the first fruit of our project to identify every street tree in Herne Hill. Paul did the first draft after weeks of trudging from tree to tree, notebook in hand, and Jeff double-checked the IDs and then reformatted Paul’s Word documents into what we hope is a website-friendly shape.
Ideally you’ll be able to follow the guides on your phone when you're out walking, although we still need to tinker with the display for mobiles so that next step take a little longer to produce.
So far 12 of the 24 streets we cover are listed here and the remainder will be along shortly. However, Delawyk Crescent will take more time than the others to publish. The winding pathways through the estate and the sometimes eccentric house numbering system make it very hard to produce an easy-to-follow tree guide, so we’re working on a different technical solution there.
In the coming weeks we’ll also spotlight the TreeTalk London map, with a short guide on how to make the most of it, and post some tree maps of local parks that Paul has helped to create. We’ll start with the one he drew up of our own Sunray Gardens, where he chairs the Friends group. You can always find him there on a Sunday morning, working hard with his volunteers on the shrubs and the flowerbeds.
Water urgently needed
The planting season should have ended by 31 March but the last couple of batches of trees won’t be in the ground until the fourth week of May. They’re going to have much harsher conditions to contend with than a tree planted in late winter, which by now would have had several weeks to establish before the longer, hotter days kicked in and its growth spurt started.
Some of the little trees that arrived recently are already looking poorly, with limp leaves instead of the firm, healthy foliage you’d expect. The planting contractors are only expected to water every two weeks, but a young tree ideally needs a weekly 50-litre soak at this time of year. That goes for trees planted in 2021 and 2020 as well, not just this season’s newcomers. We have full watering instructions and guidance for you.
The green watering bags that we talk about a lot are absolutely key to giving our trees a great start. The main thing to remember is to aim your watering can or hose at the horizontal slit in the bag, between the two black straps. Don’t pour water down through the middle of the bag - it’ll just run off into the gutter.
The bags are designed to empty in about five hours if you fill them to the top, but if that doesn’t happen let us know - they might be blocked. If on the other hand they empty too fast tell us too. It probably means there’s a tear somewhere and the bag needs replacing.
And if there isn’t a square (about 20 x 20 cm) cut out of the metal cage then you won’t be able to get your watering can close enough to the bag. We’ve been going round checking all the cages and cutting new slots if they’re needed, but if any are still missing a watering window - or if it’s not in a useful position - do get in touch.
Have a go at weeding too
As well as loads of water, little trees also need protection from vigorous competing plants that can suck up water before it gets down to their roots. A lot of the tree pits are now very overgrown with weeds and grass after the rain and sun of the last couple of months, and for the young trees to have a chance you should carefully remove the unwanted visitors with hand tools. When you’re finished you might also want to apply some forest bark from the garden centre to the soil as a mulch, to keep the weeds away and the soil moist.
Ask your street leader
If you’re new to volunteering or you don’t have a maintenance rota on your road please do get in touch with your street leader. They’ll make sure every recently planted tree has someone to water it and tend it. If you (or your street leader) have any questions about tree care please don’t hesitate to contact us. And if you live on Ruskin Walk do consider offering your services as the street leader there. It’s not a time-consuming job and you’ll make a big difference.
What’s new on the streets?
We’ve had a total of 35 street trees planted so far in the current season. In May alone the following have appeared:
A Cappadocian maple (Acer cappadocicum) at 36A Carver Road.
A Galaxy magnolia (Magnolia 'Galaxy') at 7 Casino Avenue.
A red horse chestnut (Aesculus x carnea) on the grass verge at 53-55 Casino.
An Erman’s birch (Betula ermanii) at the top of Elfindale Road, at the side of 77 Herne Hill.
A black cherry plum (Prunus cerasifera Nigra) at 15 Elfindale.
A London plane (Platanus x hispanica) on Elmwood Road, at the corner of Frankfurt Road. This replaces the stump of a decayed plane that was felled in 2020.
A purple-leaf birch (Betula pendula 'Purpurea') at 44 Frankfurt.
Another red horse chestnut on the grass verge outside 18 Sunray Avenue (Aesculus x carnea ‘Briottii’).
And a ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba) at 15 Wyneham Road.
There are some unusual species in this collection, like the maple on Carver. It has unique, glossy, bright green leaves that will turn butter yellow in autumn and is one of the trees we recommend for its resilience to climate change.
The uncommon Erman’s birch on Elfindale shown here is starting life with dark, shiny bark but as it grows the trunk will turn a creamy colour and the bark will peel off in strips.
The rare, slow-growing purple-leaf birch on Frankfurt is the first of its kind on our streets and, like the Erman's, makes another welcome change from the many silver birches or white Himalayan birches round here. The little leaves are currently dark purple or dark red, but they should turn a greener shade in summer and then purple-bronze in autumn, producing a striking contrast with the white bark.
The newly arrived black cherry plum on Elfindale, whose pretty leaves are shown below, came just in time to replace its elderly relative at no. 68, which has sadly been condemned to be felled on or after 19 May. It's become diseased, like so many of the cherry plums we've lost in the last couple of years.
Meanwhile the two new red horse chestnuts join a small but growing population in Herne Hill. You can see a medium-sized example on the front lawn at Delawyk Crescent or another, pictured below, on the entrance road to the Denesmead flats on Herne Hill. Both are still looking splendid with their big, bright ‘candles’ of blossom.
What’s still in the pipeline?
There’s a full list of this season’s plantings here and another showing the 14 trees that are still scheduled for 2021/22. The five earmarked for Elfindale and the two due on Holmdene should be planted by the week beginning 23 May. The four originally proposed for Delawyk have been reduced to three, including a lime on the perimeter road, and one of the three new trees expected for the grassy square between 49 and 71 Sunray, a white mulberry (Morus alba), is currently unobtainable.
Late spring blossom
The hawthorn, the classic tree of countryside hedgerows, was traditionally known as the may tree and you can see why, even on modern-day city streets. The first into flower in the neighbourhood were the three rare Grignon’s thorns (Crataegus x grignonensis) on Ruskin Walk. In late April the snow-white blossom stood out charmingly against the scarlet haws that had lingered on the branches all winter. This one is at no. 40.
In May proper the cockspur thorns with their glossy leaves and white blooms took their turn: the hybrid cockspur thorn (Crataegus × lavalleei) at 19 Hollingbourne Road and the elegant broad-leaved cockspur thorn (Crataegus x prunifolia) outside 35/37 Half Moon Lane, which will soon be buzzing with hungry bees when the flowers open fully.
Meanwhile the local Paul’s Scarlet hawthorns (Crataegus laevigata 'Paul's Scarlet'), below, made their own seasonal statement in a fetching shade of dusky pink, like this glamorous tree at 122 Casino.
Big trees to beat the climate crisis
There's been some criticism recently of mass tree-planting schemes for focusing on enormous numbers - millions of trees or tens of thousands of hectares - rather than genuine effectiveness. Big corporate carbon-offsetting programmes, for example, could mean rich, bio-diverse grassland that currently sequesters huge amounts of carbon being ploughed up for monocultures of inappropriate trees.
A great article appeared in the Guardian in April that gives a fascinating round-up of some really intelligent planting initiatives, including one that plants giant sequoias (Sequoiadendron giganteum) alongside British native trees. The bigger the tree, the more carbon it can capture and store.
No-one's suggesting that massive Californian redwoods deserve a place on our narrow streets, but the piece brings home how important it is to look after our existing big trees and make sure they come to no harm. The saplings we're planting now are important in their own right, but they could take decades to make a similar impact on CO2 levels.
A quick Tree Watch survey shows just how many valuable big trees we already have in our corner of SE24. Here's a snapshot:
Big off-street trees (excluding private gardens)
Herne Hill Velodrome, Burbage Road: oaks, limes, ash, horse chestnuts, London planes and false acacias (Robinia pseudoacacia) on the drive leading to the pavilion, plus many tall woodland trees on the perimeter of the track.
Baptist Church, Half Moon Lane: oak
Judith Kerr School, Half Moon Lane: 15 large trees with tree preservation orders. On the rectangle at the corner of Half Moon Lane and Delawyk Crescent there are two yews (both 31-80 years old), a beech (81-150), a tree of heaven (Ailanthus altissima, 31-80) and a sycamore (31-80). The tree next to the front gate is listed as 'Mixed Species, Mature' (31-80). In the area they use for playing fields are an American sweet gum (31-80), a cedar (31-80), two more 'mixed species' (one 16-30 years, one 31-80), an English walnut (31-80) and an Indian rain tree (Koelreuteria paniculata, 31-80). And at the back of the main building, bordering Delawyk Crescent, are a ginkgo (81-150), a dawn redwood (Metasequoia glyptostroboides, 31-80) and another sycamore (31-80).
Delawyk Crescent, Half Moon Lane: ash, horse chestnuts, limes, yews and a copper beech.
Dulwich Mead, Half Moon Lane: a sycamore, horse chestnut, ash and yew.
Denesmead, Herne Hill: a deodar cedar (Cedrus deodara) and holm oak.
Pynnersmead, Herne Hill: five hornbeams, lime and sycamore.
St Paul's Church, Herne Hill: holm oak, horse chestnut, cedar.
Sunray Gardens, Red Post Hill: ash and ginkgos on the lawn, a swamp cypress (Taxodium distichum) and alders on the lakeside, horse chestnuts and London planes around the perimeter.
Carterscroft and Cassinghurst, Red Post Hill: limes.
St Faiths Church, Red Post Hill: a sycamore.
Hillcrest, Sunray Avenue: oaks and horse chestnuts.
Big on-street trees
Burbage Road: limes between Half Moon Lane and doctor's surgery, horse chestnuts, wild cherries, ginkgos, tulip trees, silver birches.
Half Moon Lane, Ardbeg Road, Beckwith Road, Elmwood Road: pollarded London planes.
Red Post Hill: horse chestnuts, limes and oak.
Sunray Avenue: oaks and unpollarded London planes.
Stradella Road: silver maples and Italian alder.
Winterbrook Road: limes.
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