How do you guarantee an influx of visitors to any given area for a couple of weeks each year? Plant a bunch of cherry trees, of course.
The Royal Parks charity knows this: it's just landscaped Greenwich Park with 130 Prunus 'Sekiyama' cherry tree saplings on the hillside between the Grand Ascent and One Tree Hill — creating a veritable 'valley of blossom' for two weeks each spring. (That said, though some blossom is out, don't go there expecting great plumes of pink in its establishing year. Good things come to those who wait.)
The planting is courtesy of the Sakura Cherry Tree Project, which symbolises the friendship between the UK and Japan via beautiful blooms. Says Matthew Pottage, Head of Horticulture and Landscape Strategy at The Royal Parks: "These beautiful cherry trees are more than a visual delight – they represent a bond between nations, a gift to our local communities, and a lasting legacy.
"By planting these trees along the hillside, we’ve created a natural canvas, where, every spring, the landscape will transform into a vibrant sea of pink blossoms."
But this is not Greenwich Park's first cherry tree rodeo. Planted in the 1950s, Cherry Tree Avenue is a much loved/snapped allée of 28 well established Prunus 'Pink Perfection' cherry trees, which explode into double rose-pink blossoms near the Rose Garden every April/May.
In time, the newly planted valley of blossom will grow to overtake it (Prunus 'Sekiyama' trees can reach over 10 metres tall, with a spread almost as wide), though we're talking decades before that's the case. Let's hope Instagram, or its equivalent, is still in business by then.
All images: The Royal Parks
