Brockley station planting - a new chapter

It's happened! Last Monday, in a flurry of planting, our choice of trees were planted and now adorn the public realm around Brockley Station, on both the Coulgate and Mantle Road/St Norbert Road sides.

Italian Cypress going in (Cupressus sempervirens)

Having had a rather lively debate amongst ourselves about the relative merits of this or that species, we have tried to do something a little different, particularly around Brockley Common, the green space that falls away from Brockley Station down to Coulgate Street.

In go the Persian Silk Trees 

In total, 16 trees have been planted either side of the tracks, almost all funded by Greater London Assembly (GLA) money (and one private sponsor - for which, Many thanks). 

On the Coulgate side we have planted three Persian Silk Trees (Albizia julibrissin f. rosea) at pavement level, four small leaved limes (Tilia Cordata Winter Orange) at the highest level of the Common, and three Italian Cypress (Cupressus sempervirens) in the lowest level (to be supplemented by two further of the same once we have funding). At the far end of the common, where the vegetable patch used to be, we have planted one of our most favourite trees, an English Oak (Quercus robur). 

A mature Persian Silk Tree in flower (which are delightfully scented)

The feathery flowers of the Persian Silk Tree

In Mantle Road and St Norbert Road we have planted a total of four Hibiscus x resi (sometimes known as the Rose of Sharon) - small attractive flowering trees, and one Hornbeam (Carpinus betulus fastigiata), another of our favourites. 

We are delighted that John Stainer Primary School and pretty much every business on both sides of the station are supporting the planting. Browns of Brockley, Parlez, Noak, Conran Estates and Selencky Parsons Architects have already made a commitment to water the new trees for their first two years. This is a tangible and incredibly valuable contribution to the success of these new plantings and we are hugely grateful to them.