Loveliest of trees

Loveliest of trees, the cherry now

Is hung with bloom along the bough, 

And stands about the woodland ride

Wearing white for Eastertide.

When A. E. Housman wrote those lines he was thinking of the Wild Cherry or Gean (Prunus avium).  The photos above are of the large tree near post 2 at Filnore Woods and the smaller tree which has grown from a sucker of its parent.

But we also have several Bird Cherry (Prunus padus) trees, 

like this one between posts 11 & 20.

Its flowers are quite different and the cherries are small, when they come.

Soon enough though, the petals will fall like confetti and we''ll have to wait another twelve months for this display to come again.