THE CHERRY STORY

As I sit here in front of my computer in an opiate induced haze, wincing as I move my new right knee, I watch the relentless grass grow on the lawns, the bindweed scaling new heights and turn again to the exercises that will return me to my garden.

I have tried an experiment - I noticed the butterflies sunning themselves on the table outside and thought that I could feed them as well as the birds - sugar solution in a shallow container. Now I wait.

We are eating our chard, have half a dozen sweet pea flowers in a vase and I have sneaked out down the garden to look at the unharvested apples, pears and damsons - crutches, bad leg, good leg.

The ornamental cherries seem bigger than ever - well of course they are but BIGGER bigger. From the house Shirotae to the right, Tai Haku to the left. Soon they may need pruning.

When we started there was nothing there, then, after a couple of years - about 2008 - we planted the trees. This is the shirotae, planted and, I note, poorly staked. The stake should have been at 45 degrees pointing into the prevailing wind. Mind you we are well sheltered and do not get much of that.


By 2011 the garden was really staring to take shape and the Shirotae - beloved because its flowers hang down and you look up into them - mimicking the curve of our new path.

By October of that year they were thriving - Shirotae to the left, Tai Haku to the right.

I will not bother you with the story of the rediscovery of the Great White Cherry in the UK when it had all but gone from Japan - you can look it up on the internet.

Both flowering  well in the spiring of 2013 and lighting up the garden, the Great White with brownish leaves, the other with green.









In 2014 I took close-ups of the flowers and here you can see the pendant nature of the Shirotae blossom on the right compared with the other.

The sheer volume of shirotae blossom next year was wonderful as these two photos show.

An 2016 early spring shot shows how open the garden still was though all the old growth in the beds had been cleared and the leaves were not yet on the trees. The two cherries are in blossom.

By this year (2019) the trees dominated the April garden with vast amounts of flower and now, in September, we are beginning to feel like we are living in woodland.
The necessity of pruning may come soon.

And now for something completely different - leg bends and stretches, codeine and naps - soon, please soon, I shall be gardening again.