KATE MARTIN: Hello and welcome to a new season of the National

Trust podcast.

I'm Kate Martin lead Ranger in the Northwest for the National

Trust.

And in this episode, we're going to be exploring one of the most

beautiful phenomena of the season of Spring, blossom.

In spring of 2020 the first lockdown hit the UK. The normal

rhythm of life was interrupted and this resulted in many people

wanting to reconnect with nature.

Many more of us appreciated bird song, walking in the

countryside, trees, flowers and blossom.

The trials and the hardship brought out the kindness of many

and highlighted the real resilience of people in the face

of adversity.

It was at this time that the National Trust started the

movement'Blossom Together' a campaign to encourage people to

share their experiences of blossom from all around the

country.

Blossom has a significance and mirrors the feelings that our

experience of life is transient, as is joy, as is sorrow and we

need to appreciate this beauty and fragility of life.

In this episode, we're on a journey to experience some of

the most meaningful blossoms.

Our journey begins in a country which over the centuries has

developed a rich culture around celebrating blossom.

Japan is 5730 miles from the UK shores in the Pacific Ocean. But

the two countries are linked by a surprising natural history.

Naoko Abe is a Japanese writer living in London and Naoko wrote

her first English language book after discovering an intriguing

story of an Englishman who was captivated by Japan's blossoms

and the seeds for friendship sown between the two countries,

which is still having an impact to this day.

NAOKO ABE: As you know, we Japanese are crazy about cherry

blossoms. When I moved to England in 2001, I was surprised

to see so many cherry blossoms in spring.

Everywhere, parks streets, people's homes and they were

really diverse. So I wondered why the English cherry landscape

was so different.

So I did a bit of research and very quickly I discovered there

was this eccentric Englishman who was totally in love with

Japanese cherry blossoms.

KATE MARTIN: His name was Collingwood Ingram and he was

born in 1880 in Kent into a wealthy Victorian family.

NAOKO ABE: He went to Japan when he turned 21 and fell in love

with the countryside and nature.

KATE MARTIN: Ingram especially liked the cherry blossom trees

and began avidly collecting as many different varieties as he

could from Japan and cultivating them in his garden in Benenden,

Kent.

NAOKO ABE: Within six years, he collected as many varieties and

species as possible. And he was already an expert.

KATE MARTIN: As Ingram built his collection, he decided to return

to Japan again.

NAOKO ABE: In 1926 in Ingram's third visit to Japan was

entirely focused on cherry hunting. And at that time, all

the top Japanese leaders were focused on becoming a strong

nation and also a military power.

KATE MARTIN: In the country's quest for industrialization and

political power, preservation of cherry trees was not a high

priority.

NAOKO ABE: So the cherry varieties were forgotten and

Ingram was deeply shocked and depressed.

He gives a warning to the Japanese people saying that you

are not doing anything to preserve the old precious,

precious varieties that your ancestors had developed over

many, many years with such painstaking efforts.

And if you don't do anything, now you would have permanently

lost them. Everybody became silent.

His warning unfortunately fell on to deaf ears.

Ingram then decides to preserve rare varieties himself and bring

them back to England. So that was an extraordinary thing for

him to do.

And I I'm really glad that he did because some of the

varieties which had gone extinct in Japan did survive in this

country in his garden.

KATE MARTIN: One of the species of cherry tree to go extinct in

Japan during the industrialization was the

Taihaku cherry tree.

It was well known for many historical drawings and thought

loss forever.

NAOKO ABE: The Taihaku is one of the most admired and loved and

popular varieties in the world today.

KATE MARTIN: Ingram learned from an old cherry expert that this

variety had seemingly gone extinct.

The expert was desperately looking for it all over Japan,

but without any success.

NAOKO ABE: And then Ingram- Ingram said, "I've got this

cherry tree in my garden."

He promised this old cherry expert in Japan that he would

return the variety to Japan.

KATE MARTIN: So Ingram painstakingly took cuttings of

the cherry tree and tried to send them by ship to Japan.

However, the ship's route meant passing through the Suez Canal

and the cuttings didn't survive the tropical weather.

Years passed as Ingram tried and tried and failed. It was time

for a new plan.

NAOKO ABE: So in the end, Ingram cut the scion branches from the

tree and then stuck them onto potatoes and then put them on

the Trans Siberian train.

So finally they arrived at Kyoto alive and then they were

successfully grafted. And that was a moment in 1931 that the

variety returned to Japan.

KATE MARTIN: Common English potatoes, save this beautiful

variety of cherry tree from extinction. Ingram became

affectionately known as Cherry Ingram and wrote one of the

definitive books on cherry trees that is still used today.

NAOKO ABE: Five more varieties have been returned actually last

year and they were all introduced by Cherry Ingram. The

blossoms have become again a symbol of peace and friendship.

KATE MARTIN: In recent times, ties between Japan and the UK

have deepened. Two years ago, Japanese residents in the UK

gave over 6000 cherry trees to the British people as a symbol

of friendship. The trees have been planted in over 130 sites.

One of these is Chartwell in Kent, the historic home of one

of Britain's most famous prime ministers, Winston Churchill.

Senior volunteering officer at Chartwell, Claire Vincent,

explains the role cherry trees have played in the property's

history.

CLAIRE VINCENT: We were approached by the Sakura Cherry

Tree Project which is a initiative between the UK and

Japan.

We were fortunate enough to receive a gift of 30 trees to be

planted at Chartwell.

KATE MARTIN: The official planting ceremony was attended

by local dignitaries, school children and the Japanese

ambassador.

CLAIRE VINCENT: So the Sakura trees that we have used them in

our first part of the site that you come into at Chartwell.

So once they are in full bloom, they really will enrich the

welcome to the site.

Churchill bought Chartwell in 1922. Its role in his life was

of course, where his family lived, but it was a place of

solace that he could escape the pressures of political life.

And actually, there's a really nice quote in a letter that

Churchill wrote to his wife in 1950 which references the cherry

tree in the garden and the mass of blossom that he can see when

he's writing.

KATE MARTIN: The letter reads.... [

WINSTON CHURCHILL: Actor] "I have thought much about you my

sweet darling and it will be a joy to have you back. Your

flowers are growing beautifully on the Chartwell balcony and

here the cherry tree is a mass of blossom. All your

arrangements have worked perfectly in your absence and no

one could have been more comfortable than your pea. With

tender love, your ever loving husband."

CLAIRE VINCENT: Although these are new additions to Chartwell,

they are very much in keeping with the kind of trees and views

that he would have been looking out on, which is a really lovely

connection I think.

KATE MARTIN: The simplicity and symbolism of blossom means

different things to individuals and cultures around the world.

Or perhaps the best known and most joyous way of celebrating

the season also comes from Japan.

And what better way to find out about this tradition than to

attend a Hanami Party in London's Greenwich Park.

RIMIKA SOLLOWAY: My name is Rimika Solloway and I'm the

director of the charity Aid For Japan.

Today's a Hanami which is a cherry blossom viewing picnic.

Hanami means- Hana is flower and Mi is to watch or to see.

Hanami is done primarily for Sakura. That's what Japanese

people call cherry blossom.

The transience of their beauty really matches a lot of Japanese

philosophy.

It's not about being beautiful forever. It's about really

appreciating the moment that you're beautiful and then

letting it go.

They celebrate it quite similar to what people here in Greenwich

Park are doing. They all get some picnic mats or tarpaulin,

find the best tree if they can and then, they set up underneath

it they bring food and people drink beer and sake.

YUKA PA: My name is Yuka Pa. I've got a chicken. This is

called Golden Chicken. It's the coated with egg and then it's

like a Dashi on it and like a bit like a teriyaki Japanese

twist on it.

And I got the egg omelette. It's called dashi maki.

Yeah so that's a green tea. That's a cocoa chocolate

flavour.

We say that it's Hanami- Hanami Dango is the Japanese way of

saying- is that everybody attending that cherry blossom

viewing. However, the most important thing is food.

GENERIC: We came here, especially for the blossoms. We

knew from researching that it was at its most prettiest right

now. So we decided as friends and family to actually come

down, make a day out of it and have a picnic here as well.

I'm Olga, I'm Sophia. We are from Ukraine from Kyiv. That's

why we come here to see how Japanese cherry is blossoming.

Just very you know, unusual and very interesting for us. It's

like first time we see it.

KATE MARTIN: Hanami inspired gatherings are such a joyful way

to experience the blossoms together. And public parks like

Greenwich are an ideal spot for festivities.

You might not realize it but London actually contains the

largest urban forest in the world with over 8 million trees.

21% of England's capital has tree cover. These trees help to

remove 2241 tons of pollution from the atmosphere every year,

saving millions of pounds and lowering the risk of flooding.

But the distribution of that cover is uneven.

Both the physical and mental health benefits of trees have

long been proven. But for many urban communities, physical and

cultural barriers can prevent easy access to nature.

One resident in Lewisham in Southeast London took matters

into her own hands and started to make the changes that she

wanted to see in her neighbourhood.

MARIE-CLAIRE DENYER: Hi, my name is Marie-Claire Denyer.

So I first heard about'Street Trees for Living' through a

social media forum. I heard that it was possible to get a street

tree planted on your street if you had the time and facilities

to help fundraise and look after the tree.

In my street that I live on didn't have any trees on it at

all.

So I thought, yeah, great, why not get involved? And another

neighbour felt the same way.

And so we just went door to door talking to neighbours seeing if

they would be interested in having any trees, if they would,

if they could possibly donate some money towards them and

managed to fundraise for 2 to 3 trees.

KATE MARTIN: It costs residents about £350 for a tree. And then

there are the logistics.

MARIE-CLAIRE DENYER: There's quite a lot to take into

consideration when planting a street tree, you have to plant a

standard size tree which are about 3 m upwards and you're

obviously digging into hard ground where there's all sorts

of infrastructure under the pavements, lots of health and

safety issues that you need to take into consideration.

KATE MARTIN: Initially, there was pushback from some of the

residents. However, Marie-Claire and her neighbour pressed on

with their plan to bring blossom trees to the neighbourhood.

MARIE-CLAIRE DENYER: From March till October roughly once a

week. It's an excuse to sort of get a watering can go out into

the street, do a little walk bit of exercise. And then quite

often people will walk past and ask what you're doing or thank

you for what you're doing and you get to know people like

who've lived on the street for the same amount of time as you

say, like 8, 10 years that you've never spoken to before.

And then from then on you, you say hello every time you see

them.

And then the first spring after the trees went in, we got really

positive comments from neighbours. They'll be like, oh,

the trees look amazing. When are you getting more trees? And this

was off, someone who didn't want them initially as well.

KATE MARTIN: The trees made a marked improvement to the look

and feel of the street.

Encouraged by the success of blossom trees. Marie-Claire

decided to keep going with the transforming work.

MARIE-CLAIRE DENYER: So that then led on to trying to change

the environment outside my children's school.

One of the benefits of planting street trees with schools is it

does help to create a screen between the car emissions and

the area where the children are every day during term time,

there's now 13 street trees outside the school.

And then it led to a whole overhaul of the inside of the

playground.

KATE MARTIN: What started as a piece of tarmac was changed to

incorporate plants and trees with areas of shade and green

space.

Another school approached Marie-Claire to work the same

magic on their school. And before long, she was inundated

with the request to plant more trees.

Taking the leap to full time, she's now managing director

for'Street Trees for Living'.

MARIE-CLAIRE DENYER: That just came off the back of planting

one street tree outside my house. So yeah, it led on to

lots of really positive change in the localized area.

KATE MARTIN: 'Street Trees for Living' is now planting

approximately 100 to 150 street trees outside 10 schools every

year and working so that every child in London can see a tree

directly from their house.

MARIE-CLAIRE DENYER: It helps to make you realize that you're not

sort of separate to nature. You are nature, you're growing and

changing all the time just as much as the trees are on your

street.

And that's quite a nice feeling really. Yeah, it makes you feel

happy.

KATE MARTIN: Communities like Marie-Claire's are doing their

bit to bring the benefits of blossom to those who need it

most. But even beyond the cities, most of our blossom tree

coverage, once a common sight across the UK landscape has been

lost.

Research suggests that since 1900 we've lost 80% of our

traditional orchards and that blossom has declined by over 50%

in England and Wales largely driven by urban growth and

agricultural practices.

So to help bring back blossom, the National Trust has pledged

to plant 4 million blossom trees by 2030.

This includes filling orchards with fruit trees and planting

blossom circles for people to access and benefit from nature.

Our final location takes us to Britain's ocean city, Plymouth.

On the edge of town lies Devil's Point where one of these bottom

circles explores an unusual and other worldly type of flower you

won't find in any orchard.

EMMY REEDMAN: Welcome to Devil's Point in Plymouth. As we're

walking, what we can see over the water of the river Tamar

over there. That's cornwall. We're on the Devon side of the

river.

We're stood right now, both feet on the South West Coast path. As

we round the corner here, you're looking at our new'Blossom

Together' circle.

My name's Emmy Reedman. I work for Plymouth City Council on the

Green Minds Project.

Before we benefited from the blossom Together National Trust

funding. This is sort of a bit of a tired part of Devil's

point.

And Devil's Point is a gorgeous site, but this bit, it was a

disused area of tarmac. We've chosen to plant Tamarix trees

around the site alongside Hawthorn trees.

In the spring time they go a feathery pale pink colour and

they're really pretty.

So we're very lucky that we can see some beautiful blossoming

happening up here on land. But if we were to dip our toes into

the sea and take a peek beneath the waves, what might we see?

And in the National Marine Park in Plymouth, what you would see

are seagrass meadows and they are blossoming probably as we

speak.

KATE MARTIN: Sea grass is the only plant that blossoms

underwater. These ocean flowering meadows are totally

unlike anything above the surface.

And thanks to some artistic interpretation, you don't need

to be an expert diver to get a glimpse of these unique aquatic

ecosystems.

In the centre of the Devil's Point blossom circle will be a

piece of art, interpreting the beauty of sea grass blossom and

making it visible to those on land.

And if you head to Plymouth's famous National Aquarium, you

can even find out what it might be like to wander through one of

these underwater meadows.

ROSIE SHERWOOD: My name's Rosie Sherwood, I'm an artist and we

are standing at the entrance to the National Marine Aquarium in

Plymouth.

I'm here today to show my installation, the Seagrass Walk,

which has just been shortlisted for the Aesthetica Art Prize.

So we are currently walking past the Eddystone Tank, which is a

huge floor to ceiling tank that makes incredible light. And here

we are in my installation.

So the Seagrass Walk is a multimedia immersive

installation space that is about exploring blue carbon, which is

the term for carbon sequestered in the oceans.

So this space has a sound installation. It's got video

installation, it's got photography, it's got some light

art and then there's some very important information at the end

of the space as you exit.

And it has a series of beautifully curated tanks that

the aquarium designed and look after.

MARK PARRY: A lot of people don't realize that we do have

plants in the sea. People think they're algae or seaweeds, but

we do have plants that have roots and flowers as well. So

during the summer, they blossom.

KATE MARTIN: Marine biologist and diver Mark Parry studies

seagrass meadows and explains how these unusual little flowers

are completely different to their terrestrial relatives.

MARK PARRY: So the blossom on our British seagrass plants is

very subtle. It would form maybe five centimetres of the leafed

part of the plant, they are slightly transparent.

Diving around the south west of the UK and certainly on sea

grass meadows, we do see fish, Bib and Bass as well as Gobis

and Dragonet.

But I've also been fortunate enough to see some of the rarer

species in the UK.

Having done in excess of 500, 600 seagrass dives, we looked

down and at the base of one of these plants, It was what looked

like a piece of seaweed wrapped around the bottom but it wasn't,

it was one of our Long Snouted Seahorses which are very rare

that we observe it, enjoy seeing it and then give it as much

space as possible.

KATE MARTIN: Given the chance blossom thrives in diverse

spaces, including the most unexpected places.

And like a national sports event festival or holiday the show of

blossom in Spring is a fleeting shared moment with the power to

bring people together.

There are so many different ways to celebrate its arrival,

whether it's seeking quiet and solace amid floating petals, a

family trip to a tree trail, brightening up the online

community by sharing your blossom pictures or gathering

locally with friends and family and sharing food and drink in a

park or garden.

So why not plan to make your own annual blossom celebration and

take the time to acknowledge and enjoy this beautiful and

symbolic natural wonder while Spring's promise is at its most

resplendent.

Thanks for listening to the first episode in a new series of

the National Trust podcast to find out more about where to see

the best blossoms. Head to nationaltrust.org.uk/blossom.

To make sure you're notified of every new episode of the

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Find out more about audio programmes from the National

Trust at nationaltrust.org.uk/podcasts.

And until next time from me, Kate Martin. Goodbye.