Picture: blackthorn blossom. Click here for more April blossom photos.
The blossom sequence which began back in February or March with cherry plum continues in April with blackthorn. The two species look very similar, but blackthorn has short side thorns horizontal to the main stem on which flowers also appear, and the sepals of its flowers are not folded back as they are on cherry plum. Its flowers are packed almost impossibly tightly on their twigs and you wonder how they can ever all be pollinated.
Some or many blackthorn bushes may have already flowered in the last week of March, and the rest follow in the first or second week of April. (In colder years, such as 2016, 2021 and 2023, flowering can spread across the whole month, with some bushes at best in the first half and some not fully out till its end. In very cold 2013 flowering did not start until the fourth week of April.)
Once out, blackthorn blossom lasts about ten days, scattering the ground with white petals when it goes over - a sight rather reminiscent of snow. Tiny green sloe buds then appear where the flowers have been fertilised.
Also at this time you see wild cherry flowers, its blooms hanging down in bunches like the cherries to come. In 2026 these were full out in the last week of March, but a more normal time is the first week of April. Once out, the flowers last two to three weeks, and when they are over, small unripe green cherries appear quite quickly.
A notably late year in recent times was 2021, when cherry blossom started from the very beginning of the April in places but was tentative until the last ten days of the month, with some then lasting till mid May. Other colder springs include 2023 and 2012, when cherry blossom came out in the second week, 2018 and 2016 when it came out in the third week, and 2013 and 2006 when did not appear until the last week.
Various hybrids of this tree – including “plena” versions with layered flowers - bloom in gardens and city streets at the same time as wild cherry, as does juneberry - really a garden tree but sometimes found in the wild (the Hurtwood south of Gomshall is apparently a good place to see them).
Apple blossom is next, appearing on garden and commercial orchard trees. as well as wild crab apples, a little while after the leaves. Timing here is very variable. In 2024, 2017, 2014 and 2011 it happened in the second week of April; in 2026, 2025, 2022, 2020 and 2019 in the third week; in 2023, 2018 and 2012 the last week; and in 2021, 2016, 2013 and 2010 not till early May. Once out, it lasts two or three weeks.
Hawthorn blossom, traditionally associated with the start of May, also increasingly seems to come out in April. In 2024 there were some flowers as early as the second week, while in 2026, 2025, 2020 and 2017 this happened mid month. In 2026 it was then in full flower everywhere by the end of the month, while in the other years mentioned it was in flower widely, but by not universally, at this time. In 2023, 2022 and 2019 there were some flowers in the last week.
Rowan flowers appeared quite widely from mid month in 2020 too, and in the last week of April in 2019, 2014, 2011, and (to a limited extent) 2025, 2024 and 2017. Horse chestnut flowered in places from the third week in 2026, 2025, 2024, 2020 and 2017, being fully out by the end of the month in 2026 and 2025, while a few flowers appeared at the month's end in 2022. In 2026 common whitebeam also flowered at the end of the month.
Garden escapees
Gardens also contribute to the blossoming feeling in April. At the start of the month forsythia is often still in glorious yellow bloom, but it generally fades by mid month, with new leaves replacing the flowers. Again, there can be quite big variations in timings. In 2024, 2011 and 2008 it was over at the start of April, having started to come out in mid February, and in 2020 it started in late February, with just a few surviving into the first few days of April.
In 2015 forsythia did not come out till the very end of March and lasted till the end of third week of April. In 2016 it flowered all April and into the first week of May in places. In 2013, after starting in the first week of March and then being kept in suspension by the intense cold, it finally came to life at the end of the first week of April and lasted till the end of the month.
Forsythia can sometimes be found in semi-wild situations, but that is not true of magnolia, strictly a garden tree, whose enormous pink flowers usually come out in the last week of March and then fall in the first or second week of April.
However, in several recent years magnolias have been quite a bit earlier, flowering in the second week of March in 2020, and the third week in 2026, 2024 and 2019. At the other end of the scale, in 2018 flowering did not happen till the third week of April, and in 2013 not till the fourth week. In 2016 some magnolia flowers appeared in late December due to a very mild winter up to that point, but most came out at the usual time.
Lilac – often a garden tree but also found, for example, along railway embankments – also produces masses of mauve flowers from around the second week (the fourth week in 2019, 2018 and 2015, and not till the second week in May in 2016 and the third week of May in 2021). It can be a little hard to distinguish between buds and full flowers on this plant, as both look quite showy.
Flowering currant, a garden escapee that is now naturalised on verges, is in full bloom at the start of the month and usually lasts till the end of the second week. It has serrated three-lobed leaves like a strawberry and hanging clusters of pink flowers.
Other prominent garden shrubs in April include Darwin's barberry, with orange flowers, which is generally at its best in the first half of the month but can survive in places for longer. Some of the white viburnum flowers that cheered up the winter months may also survive into the first half of April, while rosemary can flower throughout the month if it has not done so earlier in the spring.
From mid month onwards there is a new wave of delights. Clematis montana, which drapes masses of pink flowers over fences and verges along railway lines and near houses, often starts to flower from around this time, reaching its peak at the end of the month. In colder years it may not start until the end of the month, however.
Likewise the gorgeous purple blooms of wisteria (definitely confined to gardens, usually on the side of houses) came out from mid April in 2026, 2025, 2020 and 2014, while in 2024 it started in the second week in places but was then put off by cold weather until the last few days of the month. In other years it comes out at the end of April or in early May.
Bird cherry - more of a garden or park shrub in this part of the country, though it occasionally crops up in the wild - starts to flower mid month but is usually not at its best till late in the month or early May.
Laburnum, a tree with cascades of yellow flowers, started to come out in the third week in 2026 and 2020, and was full out by the end of the month both years. In 2024 some were out as early as mid April, but then a cold second half meant others held off until the last few days of the month. In 2025, 2022, 2019, 2017 and 2014 flowers were just starting at the end of the month. In other years they do not come out till May.
Wild shrubs and evergreen foliage
April sees the candle-like flowers on cherry laurel, which send out a sickly-sweet aroma. Timing here is very variable from plant to plant and year to year: they can already be fading in the first week or still out in the fourth, and often seem to be not yet fully out or going over. (In 2016 they flowered in places in early January, due to a very mild November and December, and patchily from then on till the third week of April: in 2013 and 2010 they did not flower till early May.) Later in the month it may start adding new foliage.
The otherwise very similar-looking rhododendron has much more conventional bulb-shaped flower buds at this time of year: you may occasionally see these opening into its garish pink flowers in April, but this generally does not happen till May.
April is the peak month for gorse flowers, though in some years they are starting to fade in places in the second half. Also in the second half (possibly earlier in one or two places) broom starts to flower on heathland or sandy soils and is at its best towards the end of the month (this is the native broom: the showier Spanish broom, found by the sea, does not flower until June).
On shrubby downland, and also sometimes in hedgerows or on the sides of chalk railway cuttings. you can see wayfaring tree, a bush rather than a tree. Its white umbellifer-like flowerheads often burst into bloom around the middle of April, but sometimes not till later in the month (2021 and 2018), or till the first week of May (2023). Before they do so there is usually a period when they look like they are in flower but are in fact just white buds.
Rather hard to spot in woods and on shady verges is redcurrant, which has distinctive-shaped leaves. It flowers around the middle of the month (occasionally earlier), but you might struggle to recognise this, as all it produces are tassels of green discs edged with pink. Holly may start to put out its white flowers in the second half of the April in warmer years, though usually this does not happen until May.
Expired male yew flowers fall to the ground sometime in middle of the month and can make bright orange-brown carpets under their trees. Later in the month you may see the tree putting out new leaf needles on the tips of its twigs.
From early in the month in suburban areas, and mid month in more rural locations, ivy also puts out new foliage, a light green against the darker tones of the mature leaves. Other evergreen shrubs producing fresh leaves in April include box (notably found on Box Hill) and bilberry (on heathland), the latter also adding bell-shaped pink flowers later in the month.
Semi-wild garden shrub firethorn (aka pyracantha) shines bright green with the new foliage it has been adding since mid March, and you can see new leaf spikes on cotoneaster. From about the third week the creeper black bryony puts out new tendrils of its heart-shaped leaves, which snake across hedgerows.
More April pages:
- Intro and woodland flowers
- Verge and field flowers
- The greening of the trees
- Birds
- Butterflies and insects
- Weather
© Peter Conway 2006-2026 • All Rights Reserved
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