Fulham Cemetery's cherry trees

Fulham Cemetery's cherries, yesterday and today

When I first moved to West London over 20 years ago, I was struck by Fulham Cemetery's exuberant cherry blossoms in springtime, all around the cemetery.

Of particular note is the southwest avenue, where the trees create a tunnel of pink blossoms, falling like confetti, carpeting the ground. When our children were small, we would visit the cemetery every spring for them to have pretend weddings under the blossoms.

Elsewhere in the cemetery, enormous white blossomed cherry trees grew spreading canopies, far wider than the tree was tall.

Over the years, I could also see they were declining. Some trees would develop dead branches, and every year I'd visit to find just a stump remaining after the council cut it down. Today only a few of the trees I first encountered in the cemetery are still standing. 

Which led me to wonder, how old are these cherry trees? When were they planted? And why were all these cherry tree avenues planted at this time?

Cherry trees in Japan

The answer to these questions, interestingly, is linked to cherry blossom cultivation in Japan.

Cherry blossom, or sakura, had been revered in Japan for over a thousand years. Flowers of spring, they symbolise renewal. Due to their short lifespan they also symbolise the fleeting nature of life. For centuries they have inspired poetry and art. One of the most famous seasonal customs is cherry blossom viewing, or hanami. The short-lived hanami celebrations are a reminder to seize the day.

Today the spring months are the most popular times to visit Japan. The arrival of the cherry blossoms is even tracked on Japanese TV every year in the manner of a weather forecast!

Collingwood “Cherry” Ingram and the unlikely story of the Tai Haku cherry

For Britain's love for Japanese cherry trees we can credit the botanist Collingwood “Cherry” Ingram, born in 1880. He first visited Japan in 1902, which piqued his interest in the country’s culture and cherry trees, which were declining due to industrialisation and monoculture. He collected as many as he could, sending over 50 endangered varieties back to England.

By 1926 he was considered an authority on Japanese cherries and was invited to address the Japanese Cherry Society. During this visit he was shown a painting (over 120 years old) of a magnificent large-blossomed cherry that had disappeared from cultivation, despite long searching. He immediately recognised the blossom as one growing in a garden back in Sussex which he had named Tai Haku.

Cuttings from this tree were successfully sent via the Trans-Siberian express and thus reintroduced to Japan – and all around the world. Thus Ingram became known as "the Englishman who saved Japan's blossoms" – the subtitle of biography by Naoko Abe, translated in 2019.

• Read more on collingwood-cherry-ingram.com

How do we know when the trees were planted?

Thanks to aerial photography we can tell that the cherry trees were planted somewhere between 1949 (when there were none visible) and 1966 (when they were already quite large). I'd guess that the avenues of cherries and crabapples were planted in the mid-1950s. 

You can also see that after 1949 the process of "grassing over" graves had started, turning the cemetery from crowded limestone orchard into a "garden of rest", in the terminology of the time. This probably coincided with a programme of tree planting.

• Learn when trees were planted in the cemetery: Tree history 👉 

Why plant cherry trees in the 1950s?

Ingram popularised Japanese cherries in Britain with his 1948 book, “Ornamental Cherries”, which became a best seller (though now out of print).

Gardener Dan Cooper writes in The Frustrated Gardener: “Thanks to the book’s popularity the cultivation of ornamental cherry trees rapidly became de rigeur, with hundreds of streets hurriedly planted up and named in the tree’s honour. In dreary post-war Britain the sight of trees clothed in candy-floss pink blossom each spring was just the tonic people needed.”

“A stiffly upright variety with masses of deep pink flowers became an instant hit. It’s name was ‘Kanzan’, which means mountain border in Japanese.”

"Each blossom has eight to ten times more petals than a single flower, creating an overwhelming sense of profusion. As the new leaves appear they are flushed with coppery-bronze and when they fall they turn orange and red. There is a great deal of snobbery about ‘Kanzan’, but having grown up at the time many of these trees were reaching maturity I have a certain fondness for their unashamedly exuberant spring performance."

Today the pink avenues of Kanzan cherry trees still mark out Fulham Cemetery in spring, but for how much longer? Only about 6 trees still remain in the south-west avenue, and another 4 or 5 elsewhere in the cemetery. Only 2 veteran Tai Haku trees remain, arguably the cemetery's most remarkable trees, deserving of a pilgrimage by any tree lover!

Read more: Wikipedia: Prunus 'Kanzan' 

Other sakura and flowering trees in the cemetery

Japanese crabapples

The south and south-east paths of the cemetery were also lined with flowering trees, planted around the same time in the 1950s (judging from aerial photos). Like the cherries, they are approaching the end of their natural life and most have been lost over the past 20 years – only 6 large trees remain. Their blossoms still create a beautiful display in spring, as do their autumn colours.

The tall flowering trees along the south and south-central paths appear to be Malus halliana, Hall crabapple, an East Asian species. Native to China, they were introduced to Japan in the Edo period (1603-1868). In Japan crabapple blossoms are called Hanakai-do and are among the first to bloom. 

Some of the crabapples along the south east path have a deep crimson blossom. These are Malus toringo 'Scarlett', a pink-flowering cultivar of Japanese crabapple Malus sieboldii, commonly called Siebold's crab, after the German botanist and physician Philipp Franz von Siebold. At least 8 were planted at the same time as the Japanese cherry avenues in the 1950s. Only two trees remain, in poor health. (One is barely more than a stump.)

"Ukon" Japanese cherry

Behind the war memorial, there is only a single specimen of this cultivar with its unusual creamy-white, almost greenish blossoms. It is not as old as the other cherries – judging from aerial photos, it appears to have been planted in the 1980s.

This cultivar was developed during the Edo period in Japan, where it is also called "turmeric" blossoms, for its light yellow colour.

Purple plum trees

Also planted during the 1950s were three plum trees, with striking purple foliage and beautiful white blossoms in spring – Pissard's cherry plum (Prunus cerasifera). They are also in decline – all of them have lost limbs and one is just a stump with a single branch remaining.

Called ume in Japanese, plum blossoms are associated with the start of spring, because plum blossoms are some of the first blossoms to open during the year. Pissard's plum originates from Iran.

• Read more: Our champion trees page has more information and photos about all the tree varieties 👉

The future of Fulham Cemetery's cherries

Japanese cherry trees do not get very old. They are susceptible to diseases and their average lifespan is only 15-30 years (Royal Parks). Crabapples only live for 40-60 years. The cherries and crabapples in the cemetery are around 70 years old, so their decline is not unusual.

My attempts to persuade Hammersmith & Fulham Council to plant succession trees indirectly led to the creation of the Fulham Cemetery Friends. I had been writing to the council for years encouraging them to replace the trees that were cut down. In June 2023 the council's tree officer contacted me and informed me of their intention to plant 36 new trees in the cemetery, and to ask for my input on tree species and locations. Obviously I strongly encouraged them to restore the lost cherry trees that have brought beauty and joy to the cemetery for 70 years.

Among the of 36 new trees planted in winter 2023/24 were 23 Japanese cherry trees:

• 5 Tai Haku "Great white" (white blossom)

• 6 Shirotae "Mt Fuji" (white blossom)

• 3 Yedoensis (white blossom, and cherries that are enjoyed by birds)

• 9 Kanzan (pink blossom)

Unfortunately they were not planted in continuation of the original avenues, so the effect will be more random.

There are also 4 new crabapples (2 Malus trilobata and 2 Malus sylvestris), and 2 magnolias, adding to the cemetery's flowering trees. 

An additional 16 Japanese cherry trees will be planted in winter 2025/26, a gift from the Sakura Project.

I knew that the trees would need regular watering if most were to survive their first years. This spurred the process of finding tree watering volunteers, which became the Fulham Cemetery Friends.

Thanks to the efforts of our dedicated team of tree waterers, all the new trees survived the summer. Hopefully future generations will continue to enjoy Fulham Cemetery's cherry blossoms every year!

Read more

• Our champion trees page has more information and photos about all the tree varieties 👉

• Wikipedia: Cherry blossom

• Royal Parks: Ten things you might not know about cherry trees

• The Frustrated Gardener: ‘Cherry’ Ingram: The Englishman who saved Japan’s Blossoms