Here we are, nearly half way through April, the weather’s getting better and the cherry trees are coming into bloom, so it’s time for an update on the current state of the blossom. This update focuses on two of the top five places in my guide to the best cherry blossom viewing spots in London.
First up is Regent’s Park, where the small grove of pink and white trees at the south end of Avenue Gardens, always the earliest blossom in the park, is now in bloom. It’s a bit later than last year, but only by a few days.
The cherry blossom avenue leading to Chester Gate has been replanted this year – see my report last year for details of how and why. The new trees are a different variety, Prunus Sunset Boulevard, bred in Belgium. They’re taller and narrower than the lovely old Prunus Kazan they’ve replaced and the blossom is a paler pink.
They’re only just starting to bloom, so I’ll be going back in a week or two to report on their full glory.
The trees at Alexandra Palace are coming into bloom too, but they’re few days off their peak as well.
So it looks like this year’s blossom is running about a week behind last year’s.
I’ll be updating again on the blossom throughout April.
Love these cherry blossoms – really lifts our mood !!!!
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So glad!
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Thanks for this! Looking forward to updates about Greenwich park and peak cherry blossoms around any water features (for photography 🙂 ).
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Greenwich Park blossom is always late – around the end of April. The cherry blossom by the lake in St James’s Park is out now.
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Brilliant! Thank you!
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Let me know when you’re going back to Regent’s Park!
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Will do. I’m waiting for some sunshine!
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Visiting London 5-6 May, so hoping for show of late cherry blossom…perhaps Kew will be best chance?
Thank you Fran, superb web site.
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Yes, Kew is your best bet, especially the avenue of Prunus Asano by the Temperate House. Glad you like the blog!
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Hi Fran. Do you have any idea where this is? Is it Greenwich Park? At first I thought it was, but then I thought the Greenwich Park path was straight where the cherry trees were whereas this path looks curved. The photo is from Bill Bailey’s Facebook page from last year. I’ve asked where it was taken but I might not get a reply…
https://scontent-lhr3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xtp1/v/t1.0-9/11130207_1047638638583844_5143058136392651552_n.jpg?oh=d62811ef27a71c8ca942eda1cc423a2e&oe=57B29317
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It looks a lot like Greenwich but I see what you mean about the curved path. Bushey Park has a cherry blossom avenue, but I think the trees are older. Let’s see what Bill Bailey says.
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No reply from Bill, but I did some Googling and I’m confident that this is Ravenscourt Park…
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I think you’re right!
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Ravenscourt Park: I went there yesterday (Tuesday 19th April) and unfortunately I was too late for full bloom. It was still very pretty, but about half of the petals had already fallen. Looks like it was in full bloom on 12th April or slightly earlier judging from this post I found…
Greenwich Park: I went there today (Weds 20th April) and it is too early for full bloom. You can see all the buds, but very very few have actually flowered. I think I only saw 10 flowers that had fully bloomed, and the rest were just small tightly wrapped buds that hadn’t started flowering.
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Thanks for the update. Greenwich is always the last to flower. I don’t plan to go until next week.
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