My guess is that what you've seen is wild prunus and/or blackthorn blossom. White blossom on trees that don't yet have green leaves. I saw several hedgerows and trees with this open in sheltered spots last week - this isn't particularly early.
Blackthorn blossom - prunus spinosa
May blossom is the flower of the hawthorn and doesn't appear until the leaves are out.
Hawthorn Crataegus monogyna .......... May blossom
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I have a hawthorn that flowers any time and have had some in midwinter. Not this year though, possibly due to the short back and sides it got last year.
I think most of what's flowering now isn't hawthorn or blackthorn, it's those little plum things, bullaces.
Blackthorn is relatively late to flower and the blackthorn winter is that cold bit you get at the end of winter when you thought it was all over.
That was a long, punctuation-free, sentence wasn't it. Are the grammar police around?
There a sort of wild/cottage garden plum - very tart but great for home made wine. I think they're more common in East Anglia than elsewhere - certainly in the area where I grew up most cottager's gardens had a tree and bullace wine was regularly entered in local Hort. Soc. shows.
I'm sure bullaces have another name Fairy, probably several as they come in various colours. They taste like plums but are the size of grapes. Stone in the middle, they are plums
There are some 30-40ft tall trees in a park I walk through on my way to work and those were all in flower last week. Quite sparse flowers, each one small, white or light pink (tricky to tell at that height.) I can't ever recall seeing any fruit on the ground so probably some decorative stone fruit species which doesn't set fruit in the uk (most municipal parks are full of non-native trees.) If I remember correctly (which would make a change!), they may have red leaves when foliate. I'll try and remember to take a photo tomorrow.
A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
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My guess is that what you've seen is wild prunus and/or blackthorn blossom. White blossom on trees that don't yet have green leaves. I saw several hedgerows and trees with this open in sheltered spots last week - this isn't particularly early.
Blackthorn blossom - prunus spinosa
May blossom is the flower of the hawthorn and doesn't appear until the leaves are out.
Hawthorn Crataegus monogyna .......... May blossom
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Hi Dove
Its on a line of trees both sides of a local road
Im going past there later and I will check the colour etc
I have a hawthorn that flowers any time and have had some in midwinter. Not this year though, possibly due to the short back and sides it got last year.
I think most of what's flowering now isn't hawthorn or blackthorn, it's those little plum things, bullaces.
Blackthorn is relatively late to flower and the blackthorn winter is that cold bit you get at the end of winter when you thought it was all over.
That was a long, punctuation-free, sentence wasn't it. Are the grammar police around?
In the sticks near Peterborough
We've got blackthorn hedges and bullace-type tree blossom flowering around here Nut, on sheltered hedgerows that catch a bit of sunshine.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
How very careless of you nut not having any punctuation it really is ridiculous don't know what you were thinking...
I've never seen bullace - or heard of it.
Does it have another name too?
My blackthorn flowers around April/May - I think
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
There a sort of wild/cottage garden plum - very tart but great for home made wine. I think they're more common in East Anglia than elsewhere - certainly in the area where I grew up most cottager's gardens had a tree and bullace wine was regularly entered in local Hort. Soc. shows.
The one that grew most commonly in my area was like this http://www.readsnursery.co.uk/products/Bullace-Yellow-apricot.html
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Maybe the shelter is what I lack Dove.
Sorry Fairy
I'm sure bullaces have another name Fairy, probably several as they come in various colours. They taste like plums but are the size of grapes. Stone in the middle, they are plums
In the sticks near Peterborough
I learn something new every day nut and Dove
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
There are some 30-40ft tall trees in a park I walk through on my way to work and those were all in flower last week. Quite sparse flowers, each one small, white or light pink (tricky to tell at that height.) I can't ever recall seeing any fruit on the ground so probably some decorative stone fruit species which doesn't set fruit in the uk (most municipal parks are full of non-native trees.) If I remember correctly (which would make a change!), they may have red leaves when foliate. I'll try and remember to take a photo tomorrow.
Just checked and the flowers on the trees are just under 2 inches across white with pale yellow middle with some 10 stamens sticking out
The trees are mature and have been there for years
I dont have a mobile phone to send s picture