In The Past Few Weeks The Cherry Trees Of Great Britain Have Been Flowering,

but none as strange as this one, but here on a roadside in the Hampshire village of Portchester, this spectacular tree has flowered with pink and white petals on the same tree, the pink comes from the ornamental Kanzan cherry (Prunus serrulata acording to some Prunus 'Kwanzan'), a Japanese plant with stunning rose coloured petals, like most fruit trees, it has been grafted onto the rootstock of another, hardier, variety - in this case an native wild cherry with white blossom, Paul Johnston, tree officer for Fareham Borough Council, said: 'although grafting often occurs, it is very rare that the results are this spectacular, the root stock of the wild cherry is much more vigorous and if the tree is left unattended, it can overwhelm its ornamental host and in this case, the result is stunning', before anyone shouts out 'GM!' most fruit trees and ornamental trees are propagating by grafting one variety on to the rootstock of another, the technique - developed by the Ancient Chinese and brought to Britain 2,000 years ago by the Romans - allows growers to producer hardy and predictable trees, and to create dwarf varieties, and now the good news, because the new tree is a clone, grafting also guarantees that a sapling will have the exactly the same qualities as its parent, imagine the possibilities of a 4 way graft, oranges, cherries, peaches and lemons on the same tree, ideal for a small garden, no I am joking, or am I? OK two out of four!