Japanese cherry blossom trees planted at Eden Project in Cornwall

Dozens of Japanese cherry blossom trees have been planted at the Eden Project in Cornwall. The Eden Project said it had planted 50 of the trees in its Japanese Garden as part of the Sakura Cherry Tree Project, launched in 2017 to celebrate the friendship between Japan and the UK. The charity said the samplings included three varieties of cherry trees, each with distinct seasonal colours. Julie Kendall, Eden's outdoor horticulture manager said the trees would "serve as a living reminder of the enduring friendship between Japan and the UK for generations to come", but also "tells the story of our dependence on plants and their rich cultural and historical symbolism". The charity said the cherry blossoms held deep cultural significance in Japan and would take between three and five years to establish. It said the first to blossom, the Prunus x yedoensis (Yoshino cherry) is the most commonly planted cherry in Japan and would produce "lightly fragrant, pale pink flowers that fade to pure white blossoms in late March". Eden said both the Prunus 'Tai-haku' (great white cherry) and the Prunus 'Beni-yutaka' were rarer types of cherry blossom, typically only found in speciality collections.