The wild cherry tree

Kelly’s story is one that starts with the sad loss of her mum, and the timely but chance opportunity to plant a tree that is now a part of her garden and everyday life, and celebrates her late mum and dad with every blossom.

 I need to tell you the background to this tree, even though I don’t want to upset you, to tell you about my mum.  My mum committed suicide in 1996 – there were no signs, no warning, and it was when K was only 6 months old.  We were in the process of moving to Scotland at the time.

I live in Hamilton now, and I used to work for a community interest company that employs disabled people.  One day the boss came back saying he’d been to a meeting, they’d been giving out gifts to delegates and he had this green tube – he didn’t even know what it was!  He was going to just put it in the bin.  I had a look at it and thought ‘ no – hang on a second!’ – it was a tiny wild cherry tree.

So I took it home, and on the 19th anniversary of mum’s death, on the day she’d died, I planted it in the garden.  That was back in 2015. 

It’s growing really well – I’m really chuffed with it.  To think that I planted it as a tiny sapling in a plastic tube, and nurtured it, and now it’s going so well – despite having an ant infestation in it.  It flowers now too – it took a few years to start flowering– but that really suits me in the garden, I just love it.

Then, a year after I planted it, it grew a second trunk.  I like to think of those two trunks as my mum and dad, growing together – after my dad died of a brain tumour 10 years ago. 

It’s my wild cherry tree, and it’s like having my mum and dad there with me.

Kelly and I also spoke lots about recognising and nurturing the nature in our gardens, and passing that habit on to the next generation, whether that’s through family or work or community.  Kelly is a real wildlife gardener, and in addition to looking after the blue tits, the bees and other easily lovable garden residents, she likes to support the squirrels and the pigeons too!

We talked about our happiness at passing on our love of nature to our children, with Kelly describing how her (now grown up) son had got in touch to say he’d found a nest in the hedge whilst trimming it.  He’d decided to leave the hedge be and not disturb the nest, and was rewarded by finding 4 baby birds in it shortly afterwards.