18th March 2025

LOOK OUT FOR A SPECIAL SIGN OF SPRING

 

One of first signs of spring will arrive in the next few weeks.  Elm blossom.  Look out for it, it won’t be around for long but it’s a spectacle worth seeing.  Soon elm trees the length and breadth of the country will be covered in the blowsy pale green red tinted blossom that makes it easy to spot this much-loved tree.

“Spring is the perfect time to spot an elm,” explains our Co-Founder and Director David Shreeve. “We’re hoping once warmer weather and longer days come in March and April that people will look out for this year’s crop and send a picture to The Conservation Foundation with details of the tree’s location. It will be added to a dataset previously compiled by RBG Kew, with the support of Defra, to map existing elms in Britain.”

 

 

David’s love of elms goes back to 1979 when he became involved in planting disease resistant trees brought from the USA. He was told “Why bother? The elm has had it,” but he persisted and elm projects continue to be an important part of the work of The Conservation Foundation, which he set up with the late David Bellamy in 1982 and still plays a central roles in our Heritage Tree Programme.

Since the horror of Dutch elm disease in the 1970s, which stalked the country killing millions of trees and devastating the landscape, the popular and widely accepted myth was that the elm was gone for ever.  This view is robustly disputed by Dr Joan Webber OBE, one of the UK’s leading elm experts, in the recently published book GREAT BRITISH ELMS The Remarkable Story of An Iconic Tree and its Return from the Brink , “The elm hasn’t had it – there may be more alive now than ever before.” She is among a growing number of experts and enthusiasts, including His Majesty the King, who have refused to give up on the elm, many of whom are featured in Great British Elms. They refused to accept the end of the elm and have continued to believe it still had a future: that some would resist the disease and the chainsaw and by keeping the flame of hope burning, new species would continue to grow and play a role in Britain’s biodiversity.

 

 

GREAT BRITISH ELMS The Remarkable Story of An Iconic Tree and its Return from the Brink by Mark Seddon and David Shreeve, photographer Sam Ford. Published by Kew Publishing. Hardback, £30.Two hundred and fifty colour photographs.

If you want cheering up, I strongly recommend Great British Elms, wrote Jamie Blackett in Country Life, while Peter Waine of the Tree Council and CPRE, said,” You’ve done a venerable friend – not me but the elms – a huge favour.”

Please send your elm blossom pictures to elms@conservationfoundation.co.uk including the date seen and location/postcode if possible.