There’s hope for the future in reforestation

AT a family gathering in Cork City on a recent weekend, I walked through a Japanese garden, the owner of which is a dedicated cultivator of bonsai trees.

To wander amongst the less-than-knee-high specimens was as novel as strolling between forest giants at Fota Arboretum, the shape, style and foliage of which they replicate.

I was especially taken with a miniaturised vernacular West Cork sceac (also known as hawthorn). It flowers annually in May and, along with the other bonsais, one of which is 150 years old, seems to flourish in its uptight environment. I couldn’t ask it — as the song goes, “I talk to the trees, but they don’t listen to me...”