Ashes to Ashes…

This is the burgeon flower of an Ash Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree . Fraxinus excelsior . It is not the most overtly gorgeous of all blossom the cerise blossom , for example , has nothing much to worry about if it came down to a beauty competition * . In fact it is strangely maritime in appearing with its tight crimson bud and seafoodish tentacles of flower .

The Ash is one of the great British broadleaved tree diagram which , like the others , is all wrapped up in the history of this island . The Oak for example allow for the stalwart timbers from which the keen British naval ships were built . Nelson at Trafalgar , Collingwood at Cape St Vincent and Duncan at Camperdown . All sailed into battle floating on ships of English oak . The ash tree also has martial antecedents as it is from fast growing , bushed square ash tree sapling that arrows were made . Those intimate with the 100 years warfare may skip the next paragraph .

For a prospicient time ( roughly , as the name suggests,100 years ) in the middle - years England was at warfare with the French . This was not unusual as we have been squaring up to each other for C . There were a whole load of conflict as the English try on to retain their grip on the French territory . The most renowned of these battles were Crecy , Poitiers and Agincourt * * all of which were won by the English ( although only just ) because – and here I finally return to the point – we had the longbow and the French only had slow firing crossbows . The longbow , which was made of yew , discharge arrows fashioned ( yup , you guessed it ) from ash . These were fletched with goose feathers and tip with sword points . Every settlement in England had to provide a quota of arrows because , as you could imagine , dismiss ten arrow per min they belt through ammunition middling swiftly .

So , fast frontwards a few hundred years to the 21st Century . We have ash tree trees growing all over this country , most relevantly to me in the woods that adjoin my garden , as it is one of our commonest Tree . We also have a bit of a job in that a very nasty Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree disease call Ash dieback ( Chalara fraxinea ) was discovered in a few position last summertime . This is a pretty devastating virus that has swept through the forests of Northern Europe kill pretty much every ash Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree in its way . It is now probable to do the same thing over here . It is farting borne so very hard to control so we may have to vacate ourselves to the loss of the ash tree Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree which will create a banging heavy hole in the countryside .

We had the same problem in the 1970s when all the groovy Elm Tree across the state buckle under to the Dutch Elm beetle . They have never grapple to deliver as they get to a certain pinnacle and the beetle finds them and , bang , that ’s curtain for them . The prognosis for the ash is a moment cheerier as it is look that some specimens will be immune to the disease and we will therefore have resistant stock from which we can propagate young trees .

Bit of a blow but we will hopefully , in the spirit of Henry V , soldier on and get through it . Hopefully , by the time my grandchildren are my age the ash will be on the rise again .

on the theme of cerise blossom we are presently correct in the thick of what I call the Tai - Haku twister . Prunus Ta - Haku is about the most prominent flowering cherry you could get . The bud get down out with a flush of palest pink before exploding into gret clusters of full - hug white blossom , each blossom with a petty fundamental splodge of flushed claret . And then , before you know it , all is over , the petals are on the background and the leave are no longer indulgent and plummy but are produce up and deep green .
- This last is the one with Henry V. You will know it from Shakespeare

“ Once more unto the breach , pricy friend , once more;Or fill up the bulwark up with our English dead . In peace treaty there ’s nothing so becomes a manAs small stillness and humility : But when the attack of war blows in our ears , Then copy the action of the tiger;Stiffen the sinews , summon up the blood , mask fair nature with heavy - favour’d rage;Then lend the eye a dreadful aspect;Let pry through the portage of the headLike the brass cannon ; let the brow o’erwhelm itAs fearfully as doth a galled rockO’erhang and jutty his confounded base , Swill’d with the violent and uneconomical sea . ” etc etc

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