It is easy to forget to look up when gardens and parks are packed full of spring flowers. Great drifts of multi-coloured tulips hold the eye. Long flower beds filled with rivers of Primulas, Pulmonaria and bright blue Forget-me-nots, flow beneath woody shrubs and between herbaceous perennials just beginning to show their green shoots. Deep blue Muscari and different coloured Violas are also common. Even a few daffodils still linger here-and-there. In the parks it seems as if all of the flowerbeds are packed with plants. So many beautiful flowers and so many colours too, to hold our attention and feed our imagination.

*Primulas, Forget-me-nots and Pulmonaria link together in a fusion of flowers and attractive foliage*

With all this going on at ground level, why bother looking up? Well … because there are also many spring-flowering shrubs and trees everywhere and this year the aerial floral display seems to be exceptional too. Even horse chestnuts are in on the act, covered with their creamy-white frothy spires, from eye level to the tops of the trees. It looks like there will be a bumper harvest of conkers to collect in autumn.

*Horse Chestnut flowers are generally not given much attention, but actually they have intricate and very beautiful flowers*

This year the spring warmth has arrived later than usual, both in the UK and across northern Europe. The lower-than-average temperatures seem to have delayed the development of buds on most shrubs – until now! All that reproductive energy has been building like the inside of a pressure cooker and now plants are bursting into flower everywhere. Suddenly lilacs are covered in blooms of almost every colour and hue – white, cream, pinks and purples – filling the streets with their heady aroma. In the late afternoon sunshine, without the wind, it finally feels as if summer is just around the corner.

*Fragrant lilacs of every colour forming tall front-garden hedging*

Fruit trees have followed the same pattern and are now completely covered in blossoms – cherry, pear, apricots and apples. Late frosts are now unlikely, holding out the promise of a bumper harvest later in the year. The same is probably true of the many vineyards in Poland (where I am writing this blog) now producing some excellent wines. We just need some summer heat. Can’t wait!

*Apple tree covered in delicate white, pink and red blossoms*

Picking up on the issue of colourful hedges mentioned in my last blog, here in Warsaw, although different privet plants are used, there are actually many types of flowering hedges too. Spirea is a favourite plant for this purpose and is widely used in parks. It makes a wide hedge requiring plenty of room, so would not suit a small urban garden, although a single plant would make a great specimen. The Spirea hedges are currently so hidden by their white flowers that from a distance they look like snowdrifts piled against the park fencing.

Another flowering shrub used commonly for hedging ‘infill’ purposes, often between footpaths and garden boundary fences, is Berberis. This is dense shrub, attractively covered over the upper part of the plant with leaves that range in colour from maroon red to pink and green too, with many small clumps of tiny butter-yellow flowers that dot the surface. If allowed to grow, it will form a colourful and impenetrable hedge 2m in height but the bottom half may be mainly woody stems.

*Berberis commonly used in mixed hedging*

Rhododendrons are also just beginning to break into full sumptuous flower. They are real show-stoppers and are increasingly common in parks and gardens too. However, they are a non-native invasive species in the UK and will take over a flower bed if allowed (as they are doing in many areas of Scotland). They may eventually grow to 8m in height, crowding out smaller plants. It is easy to be seduced by their beautiful colourful blooms and it is not surprising so many people love them. If you want one, best grow it in a pot. I personally prefer Azaleas, which come in a wider ranger of colours, love pots and may be wonderfully fragrant.

*Large beautiful Rhododendron blooms draw attention*

And then there are cherry trees. Like other shrubs and small trees, cherry trees are also putting on a spectacular display this year. Although they are often planted singly in private gardens as specimens, in parks and other public spaces they are commonly grown in groves for people to wander beneath and enjoy. There is something meditative and transformative about wandering slowly beneath the blossom-covered branches, stopping occasionally to look up and soak up the beauty. For a few moments, nothing else matters. As a Katsumoto once said, a life devoted to searching for the perfect blossom would not be a wasted life.

*Can you spot the perfect cherry blossom*

The above Text and all Photographs are copyright of Wincenty (Wicek) Sosna. Please contact SeeHow for permission to reproduce in any way, in part or as the complete text.

Don’t Forget to Look Up

‘No Dig Veg’ – Well Almost!

Hedges