The spring blossom fad has taken a dark turn

Telegraph

26-04-2025

April 'hath put a spirit of youth in everything', wrote Shakespeare in Sonnet 98, the Bard's lament on being parted from a lover at the time of spring's annual bursting forth in flower. At my back doorstep in Lewes, from where a magnificent wisteria blossom spreads, this seasonal spirit of youth is expressed in a queue of Instagrammers queuing up to stage a selfie beneath the pale lilac clusters.
My fresh moment of floral fame comes a few weeks after visiting Japanese selfie-snappers flocked to our cherry tree, as it put on a particularly fine show of pillowy pink blooms. The blossom hunters have been drawn like bees to nectar, and they've driven me somewhat mad.
As is the case every spring, Instagram is awash with blossom shots: young women in pastel tea dresses backdropped by cherry trees, couples in romantic poses on park benches, even bikini-wearing models pouting as they fondle gravid branches. Blossom influencers such as gay Instagrammer Carlos (who posts under @ twinktraveller) and Nuria Frances (@nuriatravels) have directed enthusiasts to the best spots for floral selfies in posts such as Nuria's 'Spring Blossoms Norwich Guide' (Dowding Road, Old Catton; Christ Church, New Catton; and St Peter Mancroft Church get top billing for blooms in the Norfolk city, in case you're wondering).
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The trend took off during the first Covid lockdown – that surreally warm and blue-skied spring of 2020 – and is a transplant from Japan. There, hanami or 'flower-viewing' season runs from the end of March to May. Its onus is on enjoying the transient beauty of flowers, chiefly the blossoms of the cherry tree, but also the white or light-pink blossoms of plum tree varietals.
The blossom forecast (sakura-zensen, or 'cherry blossom front') is announced each year by the Japan Meteorological Agency and watched carefully by those planning their hanami. Each year hundreds of thousands of Japanese descend on Okinawa to witness the early blossom season on the island, which begins in January and features Kanhizakura cherry blossoms, known for their deep pink hue.
Back in Blighty, on March 20, The National Trust urged Britons to 'take a blossom break' in the sixth iteration of the heritage organisation's # blossomwatch campaign, which is inspired by hanami and offers plans for 'days out in blossom' and a five-minute, guided 'blossom meditation'.
Blossom, it claims, boosts many people's spirits and a new YouGov poll conducted for The National Trust found that almost all UK adults (94 per cent) said the sight of blossoms on trees and in hedgerows made them happy.
But the blossom fad has taken a darker turn. Recent years have seen a surge in vandalism of cherry trees across the UK, with branches being cut at the point of blooming, often to sell on in a clandestine floristry blackmarket that furnishes (unwitting) spring weddings and posh events with cheerful blooms.
On April 15, police called for witnesses to the theft of a blossoming cherry tree from the village of Carnon Downs in Cornwall, which had been planted by the Parish Council and sponsored by local residents. On April 21, Llangefni resident Lauren Roberts complained of having her front garden cherry tree 'literally yanked out of ground ' by vandals in the Anglesey county town. In a sad case in northwest London, a bereaved father announced that a rank of cherry trees planted as a memorial to his deceased son had had their branches brutally lopped off under the cover of night. And on March 11, volunteers planted five new cherry trees in Brighton's Preston Park to replace trees vandalised last spring.
Richard Smith is a volunteer ranger at Greenwich Park in London, where a parade of cherry trees draws growing crowds of selfie-takers and picnickers each spring, but where there have also been reports of vandalism of tree branches by those keen to capture themselves under a blizzard of falling petals. He told The Telegraph that the spring blossom brigade is 'totally potty'.
'They come dressed in silly costumes and swimwear [to stage their cherry-blossom shots] and you get some pretty strange questions. Last year I was driving a man on the park buggy who was really disgruntled as I could not tell him the exact date the blossoms would be gone.' This year the Royal Parks installed signs warning visitors not to touch the blossoms or take them home.
Launching the 2025 Blossom Watch campaign, Annie Reilly, Blossom Programme Manager at the National Trust, focused on the floral cheer: 'The joyful sight of blossom after such a grey, cold and stormy start to the year is a real mood lifter,' she said, 'And it's well known that spending time in nature can boost your wellbeing. With the season only lasting a few weeks, it's really important to enjoy it while we can.'
The wisteria blossom is turning from soft lilac to sepia on my wisteria plant and will soon be gone, along with those seasonal blossom-peepers. Thankfully 2025 hasn't seen any pneumatic posers in bikinis sniffing blooms at my back door – not yet, anyway.