Churchyard Nature Note with Andrew Tompsett
June 2010
2010 - Barbecue summer or wash-out?
Nobody knows, but the desire to predict the weather has been strong down through the ages, especially as regards crop and
a host of outdoor activities.The following is an example of an old saying which was obviously thought to offer guidance:
Oak before ash,
we will have a splash.
Ash before oak,
we will have a soak.
There might have been some general truth in this but if one looks at the trees it is very difficult to see any consistent pattern.
The problem is that there is considerable variation between trees of the same species. Take a moment to look at the two
sycamore trees behind the churchyard war memorial. As the accompanying picture shows, one is early and its neighbour
always very late. Why is this?
In nurseries most special (expensive) trees are raised from cuttings or grafts and so the resulting trees are all identical and
known as clones. Common forest trees grow from seed where the mixing of genes results in considerable variation.
However, we have one group of trees, the young elms midway along the North Drive, which are all identical since they have
arisen as suckers from the roots of former, old, long-gone trees – victims of Dutch Elm disease. Gardeners call this a form
of vegetative propagation similar to the way we grow potatoes or fruit bushes in which all the plants are the same.
So I’m sorry, but I can’t predict the summer by oak and ash or any other piece of folklore – and for that matter, neither can the weather forecasters!