Garden Tool Set

Tree Following: Rowan

A couple of months ago I introduced our Star magnolia. This time, we'll have a look at the rowan tree in our garden.

We moved into our house in November 2009 and on the 5 December of the same year there was a nationwide project called Tree O' Clock. At least 230,000 trees were planted during that single hour in 2009 and I'm glad to say that two of them were planted in our garden, a cherry and the focus of his post a rowan tree.

Me and our Rowan.

Moving swiftly on to 2014 and the rowan has put on great growth and for the first year it had multiple flower heads, rather than the single one of last year.


The rowan or mountain ash is a member of the utterly massive Rosaceae family which consists of more than 2800 species across 95 genera. The buds are covered in a hairy felt that fades over time.


When the serrated-edged leaves appear they are arranged in pairs along a central vein, which ends with a terminal leaf.


The flowers are a beautiful yellowish-white colour and are arranged on a pannicle-like structure called a corymb. As you can see in the photo below there are many flowers within the inflorescence. There are 5 roundish petals and many stamens surround the carpels.



Next time I'll give an update on both of my trees and may try to find some larger specimens of the star magnolia and a rowan, so I can see what my trees may eventually look like!

Until then, have a look at some of the other trees being followed this year throughout the world - over on Loose and Leafy:

Tree-following is kindly hosted by Lucy Corrander of Loose and Leafy.