NO more cherries, please The woman was quite emphatic and I must agree with her: the countryside has fancy Japanese cherry trees in more than ample sufficiency. It is that time of year when all sorts of people think about tree planting, not just gardeners but community groups, tidy town committees and do-gooders in general (I do not mean that in any disparaging sense). With lengthening days and a feeling of spring in the air, a lot of us go tree mad. True, trees may be planted at any time of the year - container-grown trees that is but mostly the business is better done while plants are still dormant. That way, they have a better chance of settling in before the ground begins to dry out and the sap begins to rise too much.
In general, we tend to be on the timid side and to think of immediate effect, selecting plants of potentially moderate size and most ornamental use. In small gardens that is understandable. The pity is that such thinking is so often brought to bear in larger places and in public spaces where real trees would be the ideal rather than scutty cherries, crabs or rowans. It is not that I dislike any of these - I grow enough of them to prove otherwise - they have their places in the average garden.
But I would hope for more beech, oak, lime, chestnut ash and even sycamore. Funny how something like the sycamore is despised. There are disadvantages - it produces myriad seedlings which could very quickly turn a garden into a jungle if left unchecked for a very few years and the foliage attracts aphids which exude a sticky substance like a thin marmalade that coats the leaves of plants underneath the sycamore's canopy. So it would not be a great choice for the average garden, but in open places and the countryside it can get on with life without hindering anyone too much, fast-growing and early into leaf. In the right place the sycamore will be a handsome thing and be a much more appropriate introduction on the approach roads to towns or villages, than some nonsensical imported cherries.
How often do we see walnuts planted? The common walnut Juglans regia is such a splendid tree and fast-growing too. The foliage is especially handsome and retains a freshness and vigour well into late summer and autumn when so may deciduous trees are growing tired and worn. For this alone we should welcome more walnuts.
What we do not want are more variegated poplars. You know the one I mean - our national tree, much admired and too often planted. It is always amusing to hear foreigners ask with surprise what it is, so rare is it overseas, even in Britain, yet so ubiquitous here. Irish people will sometimes smile and ask pleasantly if it is a handkerchief tree which is of course a frightful insult to the beautiful handerchief tree.
The poplar just looks so sick. The heart-shaped leaves are green, flushed and mottled with white and pink. In some instances the leaves are more white than green. The markings are in no way handsome and are reminiscent of a sauce which had separated or curdled and into which blood had been spilled. Very unsettling: not at all the refreshing and bright sight that variegated foliage should present.
To encourage the most virulent variegation, some proud owners prune the tree. This is a practice I favour as pruning in this case encourages disease and disease kills the bloody thing.
Populus candicone `Aurora' it is called and I can be perfectly honest about it having in my distant foolish youth fallen for the thing. We all behave idiotically before our tastes mature. This appalling lapse in taste bothered me as the tree grew and as I developed a mite of sense. So with immense pleasure I cut the offender down when it had reached about 30 feet. The trunk was cut neatly into two- and three-foot lengths, all the easier for burning. I left them in a pile for few months, forgetting about it and then coming on the sawn logs the following spring, I was shocked to see new shoots pushing out. It reminded me of Rasputin - the demon would not lie down and die decently.