Blossom Season

For thousands of years the Japanese have turned the annual appearance of Cherry Blossom each Spring in to festival. It’s a tradition well worth adopting.

Blossoms when they arrive are always worth celebrating. Those beautiful fluffy balls of white and pink don’t last long and, as they begin to fade they carpet the ground with their colour, transforming even the most drab of places into something quite magical.

In the normal course of busy western lives, the arrival of blossom is often noted briefly in passing. At best we might spend a minute or so enjoying this sudden burst of beauty and then our minds fill with all the things we have to do. But we all have more time now and fewer distractions. Why not try some Hanami, the Japanese word for flower viewing. It’s an ancient tradition and one that emphasises not just the appearance of the flowers but the fact that they don’t last for more than a week or so. Hanami urges us to enjoy beauty while it’s there, not when your timetable allows you a spare minute.

So each year, the Japanese weather reports include a blossom forecast. As in most countries, the first blooms appear in the south and the ‘blossom front’ moves north. People congregate in parks with friends and families, hold impromptu parties, lanterns are lit at night so the blossoms remain visible. What’s remarkable about Hanami is not just the beauty of the cherry trees but the fact that so many people are prepared to down tools just to celebrate the beauty of nature.

Since mid-February blossom has been appearing in Ireland, starting in the south of the country and spreading northwards. Our season usually begins with hedgerow blossom – tiny white, frothy blackthorn flowers, which appear before the leaves on the tree. Then in gardens everywhere, magnolias begin to unfurl their beautiful waxy whorls.

By now, the fruit trees are starting to blossom. There are a huge variety – plum, damson, cherry, apple, pear. Finally, around May, the white hawthorn comes into season.

At this time of year, it often feels as if new blossom appears overnight. And that is very often the case. Warm weather will bring buds into flower, which is why a sunny day can feel so glorious, as even the most mundane of streets, gardens or parks are transformed into enchanted spaces festooned with huge swathes of delicate petals.

Do we need science to tell us how good it is for our health to take the time to enjoy this free natural display of loveliness? Study after study shows that connecting with nature has a positive effect on our wellbeing. In fact, science has even identified the minimum amount of time we should spend in natural spaces to get all the health and wellbeing benefits. It’s exactly 120 minutes a week.

A study of 20,000 people by the European Centre for Environment & Human Health at the University of Exeter, found that people who spent two hours a week in green spaces were substantially more likely to report good health and psychological well-being than those who don’t. This was true for people from different ethnic backgrounds, from wealthy and deprived areas, those who were chronically ill and people with disabilities. Being in nature has been shown to lower blood pressure and stress hormone levels, reduce nervous system arousal, enhance immune system function, increase self-esteem, reduce anxiety, and improve mood. Attention Deficit Disorder and aggression lessen in natural environments, which also help speed the rate of healing

Yet again the Japanese lead the way. Researchers there have begun to study the effects of ‘forest bathing’, what we might call woodland walks. They believe that aerosols from the forests, inhaled during a walk, are behind elevated levels of Natural Killer or NK cells in the immune system, which fight tumours and infections.

Spending time around flowers, smelling them and enjoying their beauty, is shown to have a direct impact on reducing stress levels. A study in, of course, Japan took 30 office workers and exposed them to flowers for a few minutes. Afterwards they were found to have lower levels of stress, lower levels of anxiety and even positive changes in their parasympathetic nervous system.

So there are simply no excuses. When a local fruit tree, or group of trees, burst into flower, take time out not just to enjoy the beauty but to improve your sense of wellbeing and mental health. Find a walk through your neighbourhood that takes in as many of these wonders are possible. Watch the buds burst into flower and celebrate their existence for as long as they last.

More than anything blossom season tells us that the long dark days of winter are over and warmer brighter days lie ahead.

Know your Bloom

Blackthorn – Blackthorn blossom is usually the first to appear, starting in early March and running through to April. The flowers are dense and sometimes it seems as if the tree or bush is covered in snow. It’s most often seen in hedgerows and scrub. The blossom appears before the leaves and the bark of the tree is dark.
Magnolia – Usually to be seen in gardens, these usually resemble large upright goblets of pale pink or white on bare branched trees. The petals or sepals are much thicker than other blossoms. From mid-March onwards in most areas but earlier in southern, warmer spots.
Cherry – There are a huge variety of cherry trees, both wild and cultivated. The blossom is pinkish white and the leaves are a green oval shape with a pointed tip. The flowers have no distinctive smell. From mid-March onwards.
Plum – Like cherry trees, plum trees have pink blooms but the leaves are usually a reddish purple (although some varieties do have green leaves). The quickest way to tell a plum from a cherry blossom is that plum blossoms have a strong sweet smell.
Apple – Apple blossoms appear at the same time as the leaves grow. They usually produce white flowers with a tinge of pink at the base on some varieties.
Pear – Pear blossoms are white and there are usually less of them than on other fruiting trees. They have a mild sweet scent.
Whitethorn – This is the last of the spring flowering trees. Its blossoms appear around May (it’s sometimes known as the May tree). The flowers are similar to the Blackthorn’s although the petals are rounder and fuller.