One of first signs of Spring – Elm Blossom – will arrive on the Isle of Wight in the next few weeks.
Soon elm trees the length and breadth of the country – including right here on the Island – will be covered in the blowsy pale green red tinted blossom that makes it easy to spot this much-loved tree.
It won’t be around for long but it’s a spectacle worth seeing…
The Isle of Wight has some fine elms which can be found in ‘Great British Elms’, a new book by lifelong elm champions David Shreeve and Mark Seddon. They have put their passion and enthusiasm for the elm into their widely acclaimed book published by Kew Publishing, with magnificent photographs by Sam Ford.
In the book Isle of Wight-based ecologist Ian Boyd describes the Isle of Wight Elm Project, which began in 1997, has moved successfully to re-elming the Isle of Wight. In 2017 the beautiful white-letter hairstreak butterfly, which depends on the elm, was seen for the first time.
Since the horror of Dutch elm disease in the 1970s, which stalked the country killing millions of trees and devasting the landscape, the popular and widely accepted myth was that the elm was gone forever. This view is robustly disputed by Dr Joan Webber OBE, one of the UK’s leading elm experts, who says in the book:
“The elm hasn’t had it – there may be more alive now than ever before.”
She is among a growing number of experts and enthusiasts, including His Majesty the King, who have refused to give up on the elm, many of whom are featured in Great British Elms.
