Cherry Blossom Festival

Cherry blossom is serious business in Japan. Every year the ‘forecasts’ predict the arrival of the first blooms, which are then tracked across the country like a weather front.

This year I can tell you the first blossom arrived on the sub-tropical island of Okinawa on January 21st before bursting onto mainland Japan during the last week in March. At the time of writing it is still expected, eagerly, in northern Hokkaido on the 28th April.

The annual appearance of the beautiful pink and white flowers of cherry trees has been celebrated in Japan for over a thousand years, and its arrival in each part of the country is greeted by locals with a festival lasting as long as the blossom does.

Known as Hanani, the festival is an exuberant occasion to mark the arrival of spring. It is basically one big outdoor party to celebrate the transient beauty of nature and a reminder to make the most of life.

In the old days it involved feasting and poetry and a general ‘viewing’ of the phenomenon. Today thousands of people fill parks to eat, drink and sing songs, with lanterns hung in the trees to extend the merriments long into the night.

More recently cherry festivals have sprung up elsewhere around the world, in the USA, Italy and the UK. And now for the first time we have one in Lincolnshire.

Beginning on Sunday, Doddington Hall will host its first cherry blossom festival, complete with origami workshops, guided walks and flower crown demonstrations.

Visitors will be invited to view blossom trees through picture frames, relax on blankets with a picnic and enjoy Japanese music (that will be piped into the garden).

Whether our forecast proves as accurate as Japans we’ll just have to wait and see. Whatever the weather it will be a good excuse to appreciate these beauty trees and be reminded that, despite today’s snow, spring is here.

If you are inspired by what you see and like the idea of a cherry tree for your own garden you will not be spoilt for choice. In fact there are so many varieties the hardest thing will be to settle on your favourite. Here are a few worth considering:-

• Prunus ‘Taihaku’
• Prunus ‘Shirotae’
• Prunus ‘kanzan’
• Prunus ‘Amanogawa’
• Prunus ‘Pandora’
• Prunus sargentii ‘Accolade’
• Prunus ‘Spire’

The Doddington Hall Cherry Blossom Festival runs from the 17th to the 24th April.Full details are on their website.

Other good places in the UK to see cherry blossom include Kew gardens in London, Anwick Castle in Northumbria and Batsford Arboretum in Gloucestershire

The National Collection of flowering cherry is at Keele University, in Staffordshire.

You can view the Japanese blossom forecast here.