The August Tree

Steffie Shields focuses on the rowan tree for clues on expected yields as harvest time approaches.

The traditional harvest season, an obvious concern to farming families and businesses, is helpfully heralded when nature deigns to offer positive signs of ripening. One wonders therefore, in 2025, will such hints of yield be considerably earlier than usual? Keep an eye on brambles in your local hedgerows and berries on the rowan trees.

The weather was already baking in late June. Shrub roses were simply stunning – to my mind, the best cluster displays ever. Unfortunately, in frazzling temperatures alongside lack of rain, their colourful blooms faded and wilted far too swiftly, and their fragrance was just as fleeting. Thinking forwards, having spied this year’s copious wild roses, will we be recompensed with shedloads of blackberries?

If only for a precious minute or two, take time to stop. The more we observe the green world, the more we come to ascertain the swings and roundabouts of changing seasons and adapt accordingly.

Check the Woodland Trust website if you wish to participate in a project studying variable habits of trees for the sake of their dependent local wildlife.

Nowadays those who take digital photographs, whether with camera, phone or iPad, enjoy a useful extra bonus. One can look back to earlier years to compare dates of when herbaceous plants, shrubs and trees are at their best, whether aesthetically or productively. Notice these accompanying illustrations are dated. When did this year’s rowans blossom and are they fruiting this month?

Some readers may remember that, in July 2013, when our daughter Gabrielle married her Welsh husband, we chose to decorate St Bartholomew’s Church, Welby, with a pair of rowans either side of the rood screen as a special welcome to all our guests.

Afterwards, we gifted one of these deciduous trees to our neighbour who kindly planted it that August on the right of the drive we both share; the other we settled in the lawn to the left of our gate to replace an aged rowan that had died.

MAGIC AND COLOUR
As years go by, and as days extend, I love to watch each rowan’s progress. Sometimes their fluttering, pinnate leaves in pairs of leaflets look like the feathers of birds on the wing. Having purchased both trees together, I believed them to be the same, but as they grew stronger I discovered their form and habit were completely different.

My neighbour’s tree is elegant, upright and quite narrow, sporting large pinnate leaves with 11-15 serrated, dull, dark green pairs of leaflets. It is a hybrid Sorbus aucuparia ‘Fastigiata’, originally from America, also known as Sorbus ‘Nana’. Our rowan tree, Sorbus aucuparia, is more of a spreading tree and with fewer pairs of leaflets, and irregular, as if blown by the wind. Sometimes called mountain ash, for its foliage is like native ash trees, its hard wood is useful for making tools. It is common in the west and north Highlands, with many names including witchwood.

The origin of the surname Rowntree, it has nothing to do with chocolate! According to folklore, this tree is said to ward off evil or mishap. Amenable to any position, whether in sun and shade, it has become a symbol of resilience and adaptability.

Come spring, generous, flat, clusters of pale green buds open gradually, each revealing a tiny, creamy-white flower consisting of five petals and five small, yellowish-green, triangular sepals.
Dense panicles of countless blossoms massed together are a welcome sight from May into June, attracting equally countless bees and other winged insects.

One early evening, as the sun was waning in the west, I noticed one fully open cluster seemed to have caught the light inside – a light-bulb moment! Notice the miniscule stamens, once robbed of yellow pollen, these appear to darken, a sign they have been pollinated.

Also known as the August Tree in the Midlands and north, the berries finally turn a magical, brilliant orange red. Each oval berry has a tiny five-pointed star or pentagram underneath, again an ancient protective symbol. 

The RHS considers these berries potentially harmful and warns against eating them. However, they are edible if cooked, and Vitamin C rich, if sour, perhaps why birds leave them well alone until autumn. A tart jam or jelly to accompany meat may be made. Writing this on 30th June, the berries on next door’s fastigiate tree are almost orange, and will probably progress to ripe red before August.

Choosing your variant
Take care when shopping, with many variants now available. Some varieties of rowan can grow to 15 metres. Plant preferably in November, and remember to water a young tree in drought.

The rowan thrives in woodland and has proved equally popular in urban situations as a street or garden tree. Several varieties ornament Grantham’s avenues, including an unusual oak-leaved rowan.

Sorbus ‘Joseph Rock’ sports eye-catching yellow berries and splendid autumn colour. Considering developers constructing new housing, lately cheek by jowl, with almost non-existent front gardens, I wonder if there is adequate space for this ideal and remarkably enriching small tree to shade each house?

Historical references
Since 2025 marks the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth (1775-1817), here are a few lines in tribute to the celebrated author whose correspondence and novels reveal her love of trees.

We can picture those trees beloved by garden owners of the Regency period, for the romantic, protective canopy they offered.

‘It had no park, but the pleasure-grounds were tolerably extensive; and like every other place of the same degree of importance, it had its open shrubbery, and closer wood walk, a road of smooth gravel winding round a plantation, led to the front, the lawn was dotted over with timber, the house itself was under the guardianship of the fir, the mountain-ash, and the acacia, and a thick screen of them altogether, interspersed with tall Lombardy poplars, shut out the offices.’ Sense and Sensibility (1811)
When it comes to landscaping gardens, another legend, ‘Capability’ Brown (1716-1783) found love in Lincolnshire, and married Boston-born Bridget Wayet!

An ambitious and exciting new exhibition ‘The Green World of Brown’ is showcasing this “great influencer’s holistic, innovative, naturalistic approach to landscape, architecture and interiors”. (See sidebar for more details.)

Readers might take the family across during the summer holidays to explore Weston Park, one of Shropshire’s best-loved 18th-century landscapes and to enjoy this unique, creative mix of visuals including the latest high-resolution photography by some of the country’s best garden photographers – and yours truly.

Old archives prove that Brown was adaptable and resilient. He planted many rowans in his lifetime – and more deserve to feature in the restoration of his many surviving parks for the ongoing well-being of both visitors and wildlife!

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The August Tree

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