We’d hoped to be able to bring you news in this issue of the council’s plans for the November-March tree planting season, but unfortunately we haven’t seen them yet. As soon as we do we’ll send out an extra bulletin, with all the details and some comments of our own.
Tree funding bid
You’ll know from the email and questionnaire that we sent out at the end of September that we’ve applied as a group for £15,000 funding from Southwark to plant street trees on previously unplanted sites.
161 people replied to the survey, with 160 in favour of our proposal and just one against. Many thanks for your exceptionally strong support. Our application went in on October 4th and we’ll know the outcome early in 2021, when our ward councillors announce which bids they’ve approved. Here's a PDF of the completed application form.
If the project is approved, we’ll do a widespread consultation on the exact locations. But we’ve looked around in Herne Hill for any suitable pockets of public land that could host a tree, and the ones we’ve found fall into six groups:
Roads with heavy traffic where trees can filter pollution. A lot of the pavement along Herne Hill, for example, doesn't have a single tree.
Four-way junctions between main roads and residential roads. There's space for more trees where Beckwith Road and Elmwood Road meet Red Post Hill at one end and Half Moon Lane/Village Way at the other.
Bare pavements that have never had trees. There are a few side streets like this but Casino Avenue stands out for its long, barren stretches at the top and bottom of the road.
Empty spaces at the end of residential streets. When you approach the end of a street like Elfindale Road or Danecroft Road you might see garages or the blank walls of shops or houses round the corner, but it's very rare to spot a tree.
Garden squares. The Sunray Estate has several of these, including big open spaces along Sunray Avenue and Casino.
Grass verges. The Delawyk Crescent perimeter road has a number of narrow verges that might benefit from small trees.
We’ve drawn up a spreadsheet listing these in more detail. Click here to open it.
Autumn leaves
You might have read this week about the National Trust’s forecast for a ‘spectacular and prolonged’ display of autumn colour across the country. They say sunshine and rain throughout the summer have given trees a great chance of keeping their leaves until temperatures drop and colour starts to develop. The warm, sunny weather increases the sugar content of the foliage and results in a range of pigments.
Tony Kirkham, the head of the arboretum at Kew, also predicted a spectacular autumn. “It's started quite early this year,” he told Radio 4’s PM programme. “Some of the autumn colour that we’re starting to see now is what we call drought-induced, so it's been brought on by the hot summer. So I think we'll see a quick burst of autumn colour and then that will be followed by the real fall colour.”
“I think this year will be particularly good,” he went on. “What autumn colour needs is water, so we’ve had that really good rain this weekend, it needs cool nights and warm days or sunny days, and that will bring on the colour to its best.”
There’s already striking evidence of this early start in Herne Hill. We went out on the afternoon of October 7th to take a few photos.
We started with Winterbrook Road’s Yoshino cherry avenue (Prunus x yedoensis), which is famous for its early spring blossom. It’s just beginning to put on its splendid autumn show, featuring impatient trees like the one at no. 51. Make sure to visit over the next few weeks.
Around the corner at 40 Stradella Road there’s a fiery ‘Spire’ cherry (Prunus x hillieri ‘Spire’), which is itself a cross between the Yoshino and the more common Sargent’s Japanese cherry (Prunus sargentii).
Over on Holmdene Avenue, outside no. 43, have a look at the glowing yellow leaves of the red ash (Fraxinus pennsylvanica). But make it quick - the same tree on Sunray Avenue, where it runs into the parade of shops on Crossthwaite Avenue, has already lost its leaves.
And take a stroll along Burbage Road to see the gorgeous sweet gums (Liquidambar styraciflua). Many of them are still green, but on some the leaves, shaped like five-pointed stars, are already turning deep red, like the one at number 105. They’ll get even better as the weeks go by, adding orange, yellow and purple to their palette.
Watch out for more autumn fireworks from the big ginkgos (Ginkgo biloba) on Burbage; the enormous silver maples (Acer saccharinum) at each end of Stradella; the large tulip trees (Liriodendron tulipifera) on Burbage, Howletts, Holmdene, Hollingbourne, Beckwith and Stradella; and the long column of tall large-leaved limes (Tilia platyphyllos) running from Half Moon Lane to the doctors' surgery on Burbage.
On our smaller side streets, meanwhile, the many Himalayan birches (Betula jacquemontii) and silver birches (Betula pendula) are already turning bright yellow and the various Japanese cherries should also put on a great display.
Autumn fruit
The birds and squirrels have taken many of the berries and nuts on our street trees, and the recent high winds and heavy rain have knocked off even more. But there are still some highlights around.
If you look closely at the liquidambars you’ll be able to spot this year’s spiky green fruit as well as last year’s, which hangs on even after it turns black. The photo below shows a cluster of fruit against the striking red foliage of one liquidambar at 103 Stradella.
There are lots of bright scarlet hawthorn berries around too, and they look stunning against the autumn foliage of the broad-leaved cockspur thorn (Crataegus prunifolia) outside Courtmead Close on Burbage Road.
There’s also a big Pride of India (Koelreuteria paniculata) opposite 5 Elmwood, just behind the Sunray Gardens railings, with bronze-coloured clumps of papery, lantern-shaped fruit, each containing three black seeds. The leaves of the Koelreuteria are still green but should soon turn yellow and orange.
And finally…
There’s not much maintenance work to do on the streets at this time of year, but if you want to learn a bit about tree pests and diseases before we get out again next spring the Woodland Trust has come up with a handy guide. You can find it here.
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