Hedgerow blossom

“Without hedges, England would not be England,” the nature writer Richard Jefferies declared in 1884, adding, “I love their very thorns.” Thorniness is, of course, highly desirable in a hedge, which is why two of the most widespread hedgerow trees are blackthorn and hawthorn. Their leafing and flowering patterns are reversed. Blackthorn flowers first, then unfurls its leaves; hawthorn greens up well before it blossoms. The Nature’s Calendar citizen-science project run by the Woodland Trust records these and many other signs of seasonal change.

FIND OUT MORE Read our feature on hedgerows in our April 2020 issue.