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Spring blossom - blackthorn
Posted by: Pippa Greenwood, 20 March 2008, 11.32AM
I love the delicate flowers of prunus, although I'm not so keen on the blowsier, pink varieties I sometimes see in other gardens. The smaller, more delicate spring blossom hits the spot for me.
Like most gardeners, I also have a nose for a bargain, so a gorgeous-looking plant that also produces fruit scores double points.
Prunus spinosa is commonly known as blackthorn, and produces wonderful sloe berries in autumn that I use to make my sloe gin. I've still got a little left, but have made a mental note not to make any next year.
The plants have been looking stunning for a few weeks, the flowers so densely packed along the leaf-free stems that they clothe them almost entirely in white blossom. It may be sold in garden centres and nurseries as a native hedging plant, but surely its time more were grown as ornamentals (with a sideline in winter liqueur production, of course).
The only problem is that they self-seed and tend to spread themselves rather rapidly, but if they do grow too much, or too quickly, you can just cut them back.
Comments
grannyanne
20 March 2008, 08.03PM
pippagreenwood
26 March 2008, 05.07PM
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