Alnwick Gardens ~ April 2018 ~ Part 1 ~ Tai Haku Blossom

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Cherry blossom, don’t you just love how it bursts forth at the end of winter, piercing the grey skies in defiance with their lush pink or white bunches of blossom. I have a  lovely pink one in my front garden, but Sophie doesn’t, so when Spring comes, we go off on a blossom hunt.  This year Sophie found out that Alnwick gardens have an orchard of over 300 Tai Haku cherry blossom trees, the biggest in the world apparently.

The story of the Tai Haku is lovely. Back in the day, a chap called Captain Collingwood Ingram, was obsessed with cherry blossom trees, and learned so much about them that in 1926 he was invited to give a talk to members of the Japanese Cherry Society, where he was shown a painting of a superb cherry with huge white flowers, which, he was told, was sadly extinct.  But Ingram wasn’t an expert for nothing, he recognised the tree in the painting as being the same as a tree he had seen in a Sussex garden.  As the tree was on it’s last legs, he hot footed it over there, took several cuttings from it, and today all Tai Haku trees in the world are descended from those cuttings. He re-introduced it to Japan in 1932.

The Duchess of Northumberland (who owns and developed the gardens as well as Alnwick Castle – Hogwarts to my American pals 🙂 )has added 50 double seated swing seats to the orchard, and it’s just fabulous. When we got there a carpet of daffodils covered the grass under the trees. SO many photographs, hard to choose, but here are some of my favourites of the day

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Of course there’s much more to Alnwick gardens, the orchard is just a small bit of it, so stay tooned for the rest of our day there.

All pictures can be clicked on to get the embiggened and embettered experience 🤪

Categories: Adventures, Fuji, FujiX-T2, gardens, landscape, nature, photography, uncategorisedTags: , , , , , , , , , ,

56 comments ›

  3. Monster Mermaid
    June 2, 2018 • 8:57 pm

    Wow!looks amazing!thanks for sharing x

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply ↓
  4. ortensia
    June 2, 2018 • 11:20 pm

    So these trees are not just beautiful but also had a great history😀

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply ↓
  5. Cindy Bruchman
    June 3, 2018 • 3:48 am

    Oh, thank you. Nothing beats an English garden especially when one lives in Arizona.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply ↓
  6. Eddy Winko
    June 3, 2018 • 6:47 am

    I’d love to see a picture with a whole load of folks on the swings, maybe in period costume, or hells angels, or hippies, or shut up Eddy 🙂
    We started picking our cherries this week, but it is rare a basket makes it back to the house 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply ↓
  7. Dani☆Touch My Spine Book Reviews☆
    June 3, 2018 • 9:28 am

    A blossom hunt sounds awesome!!!😀💘 Great post, Lovely Lady!❤ When I first read this, I thought it said hunting for bousums! Bahahaha!🤣

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply ↓
  8. beetleypete
    June 3, 2018 • 11:21 am

    Spectacular stuff, FR. Cherry blossom in all its glory. 🙂
    Best wishes, Pete.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply ↓
  9. thebookwormdrinketh
    June 3, 2018 • 1:35 pm

    Beautiful pictures!!! I wish we had more cherry blossom trees around here.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply ↓
  10. bitaboutbritain
    June 4, 2018 • 10:54 am

    Stunning photos, as usual. Loved your intro, too. I visited Alnwick gardens a few years ago – amazing place – need to go back…

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply ↓
  11. M.B. Henry
    June 4, 2018 • 6:55 pm

    These are amazing pictures! What a beautiful place!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply ↓
  12. lolabees
    June 4, 2018 • 10:21 pm

    I love that first photo! So pretty!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply ↓
  14. enmanscamera
    June 5, 2018 • 6:24 pm

    A wonderful story with excellent photos to go with it. Well done as usual.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply ↓
  15. Jay
    June 6, 2018 • 2:30 pm

    We have to make do with apple blossoms here, but it’s such a wonderful surprise when they finally burst forth. I love the scene you’ve captured here.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply ↓
  16. bunsareallthatyourequirehere
    June 6, 2018 • 2:33 pm

    Blossom is so beautiful. There’s some magic to them.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply ↓
  17. Teagan R. Geneviene
    June 6, 2018 • 5:02 pm

    Wow! Look at all of them. Washington DC’s got nothing on those! I love that sprawling building in the distance on the first one.
    It’s downright magical. Thanks for sharing this adventure, Fraggle! hUGS.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply ↓
  22. Sarah Ferguson and Choppy
    June 12, 2018 • 4:29 pm

    Amazing! I would visit just to see this (and that story was awesome, too).

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply ↓
  24. steviegill
    July 15, 2018 • 8:58 pm

    Wow, the orchard is magical in full blossom – like something out of movie! Great captures.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply ↓

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