Through the Seasons
Malus Profusion in Spring
Spring is one of the most attractive seasons in the Arboretum. Those trees that spent the winter with leafless branches have bright new foliage. These new leaves are nearly always various shades of green but some, like the form of the common Sycamore called 'Brilliantissimum', have particularly brightly coloured foliage in spring which fades later in the year.
Summer is a relatively quiet time in the Arboretum, the flush of spring blossom has finished and the fruits that follow the flowers are still mostly too immature to make a show, but a number of shrubs flower later than the trees. The many species and varieties of Mock Orange (properly called Philadelphus) often give a particularly good display of flowers. The Mock Oranges are a group of very useful garden shrubs. One of the commonest is the variety called 'Virginal' which has strongly scented double flowers on a large shrub that can grow up to 3m. Specimens of this are found to the right of the pathway just beyond the site plan of the Arboretum behind the Environmental Discovery Centre. There are many much smaller varieties of Mock Orange which are better suited to smaller gardens and a hunt around this part of the Arboretum will show many more. Nearly all of them have pure white flowers and many are sweetly scented like those of orange blossom - hence their common name.
Autumn is said to be the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness. The weather does not always favour mists, nor does it always favour fruitfulness but autumn on the Arboretum will usually provide a good display of fruit. In particular there will nearly always be a good display of fruit on at least some of the trees in our National Collection of ornamental crab apples (forms of Malus). Some of these are specimens of wild apple species from around the northern hemisphere; others are highly bred ornamental garden varieties. They are to be found throughout the Arboretum but a walk following the Planet Trail will take you past many of them. A favourite is the variety called 'Evereste' that nearly always produces a large number of streaked orange-yellow fruits about 2cm in diameter. A large specimen of this can be found by a group of pine trees just past the willow arch near to 'Pluto'. Beyond it, on either side of the grassy ride, there are many crab apple trees, including several varieties with purple tinged leaves contrasting with orange to crimson to purple fruits.
