Japan's Gift of 80 Cherry Trees To Gunnersbury Park To Be Celebrated

Event being held following planting of Cherry Tree Grove


Volunteers planting the cherry trees in Gunnersbury Park

Related Links

Car Park Charging To Start at Gunnersbury Park 'Soon'

Friends of Gunnersbury Park and Museum

Storm Eunice Forces Closure of Gunnersbury Park

Putt in the Park Want Late Licence in Gunnersbury Park

Sign up for weekly email newsletters from ActonW3.com, BrentfordTW8.com, ChiswickW4.com and EalingToday.co.uk

A special ceremony is to be held in Gunnersbury Park this Friday (18 March) to celebrate the Cherry Tree Grove which was made possible by the gift of 80 trees from Japan.

Attending will be the Sakura Project Team, a Japanese Embassy Minister, the Deputy Lieutenant for Hounslow, local dignitaries and representatives of the local community. The event will provide an opportunity to thank the numerous Gunnersbury volunteers and Capel Manor College horticultural students who planted the trees in November 2021.

Although April is traditionally known as Sakura month, warmer weather has meant that cherry trees are tending to blossom earlier.

The Gunnersbury planting was initiated by Michael Rowan, one of the trustees of the Gunnersbury Museum & Park Development Trust who had heard about the Sakura UK Project and thought it offered an opportunity for Gunnersbury. A longstanding aim has been to revitalise an area of the Park planted in 1900-1 as an Anglo-Japanese Garden by Leopold de Rothschild and his skilled gardener, James Hudson, before the estate became a public park. The new trees are just a few minutes' stroll away from this site.

The 80 trees planted at Gunnersbury are just a few of the 6,500 Japanese cherry trees –'Sakura' in Japanese – given to the UK by Japan. They have been distributed to over 400 schools and 160 gardens and parks (including several of London's biggest parks) across the UK.

The planting of the cherry trees will leave a legacy from the Japan-UK Season of Culture 2019-2020, which celebrated Japan’s relationship with the UK. The Season provided the opportunity to learn more about Japan, its culture and its people through hundreds of events ranging from arts, sports, cuisine and performance.

Though the Season ended in 2020, and events were disrupted by the pandemic, Gunnersbury was able to complete its planting in 2021. The event is one of the last Sakura Project celebrations.

Howard Simmons, the Trust's Chairman, said, "Our trustees were thrilled to discover that Sakura were prepared to donate trees to Gunnersbury. We hope that many local residents will now come to the Park every spring to see the exceptionally pretty spectacle of the cherry trees in blossom."

David Bowler, Chief Executive Officer, Gunnersbury CIC, said,“We’re delighted to have been given the cherry trees by Sakura UK – they are a wonderful addition to the park landscape. We’d like to thank the Gunnersbury Museum & Park Development Trust for securing the trees and the huge number of volunteers and students who worked with our garden team to undertake the ambitious process of planting them all".

Like Reading Articles Like This? Help Us Produce More

This site remains committed to providing local community news and public interest journalism.

Articles such as the one above are integral to what we do. We aim to feature as much as possible on local societies, charities based in the area, fundraising efforts by residents, community-based initiatives and even helping people find missing pets.

We've always done that and won't be changing, in fact we'd like to do more.

However, the readership that these stories generates is often below that needed to cover the cost of producing them. Our financial resources are limited and the local media environment is intensely competitive so there is a constraint on what we can do.

We are therefore asking our readers to consider offering financial support to these efforts. Any money given will help support community and public interest news and the expansion of our coverage in this area.

A suggested monthly payment is £8 but we would be grateful for any amount for instance if you think this site offers the equivalent value of a subscription to a daily printed newspaper you may wish to consider £20 per month. If neither of these amounts is suitable for you then contact info@neighbournet.com and we can set up an alternative. All payments are made through a secure web site.

One-off donations are also appreciated. Choose The Amount You Wish To Contribute.

If you do support us in this way we'd be interested to hear what kind of articles you would like to see more of on the site – send your suggestions to the editor.

For businesses we offer the chance to be a corporate sponsor of community content on the site. For £30 plus VAT per month you will be the designated sponsor of at least one article a month with your logo appearing if supplied. If there is a specific community group or initiative you'd like to support we can make sure your sponsorship is featured on related content for a one off payment of £50 plus VAT. All payments are made through a secure web site.


March 16, 2022

Bookmark and Share