Blossom, a fragile, cheerful spring announcement. When the (fruit) trees open up and seduce you with sweet flowers, you know that the new season is approaching. The trees show you that a wonderful period of sweet bloom is coming. Lovely flowers form a contrast with the sturdy twigs. Naughty leaves in soft colours, they will flirt you right into spring.

COLORS AND SHAPES
The different fruit trees spoil us with different types of blossom. The plum blossom consists of white, fine flowers. The cherry tree's white flowers grow and hang from long peduncles, accompanied by small green baby leaves. The white blossom of the pear tree is a bit firmer. Want dark pink buds that open into sweet pink? Then you choose apple blossom. Each type of fruit blooms for up to several weeks.

SYMBOLISM
Blossom, of course, stands for spring, new beginnings and growing. The cherry blossom has extra meaning in Japan. Here this type of blossom, sakura, stands for life and that we cannot control it. The weather conditions literally and figuratively determine the duration of the flowering period for the blossom. Some blossom varieties will shine for a shorter period of time than others and it is very important to enjoy the flowering period to the fullest.

ORIGIN
So many trees, so many provenances. The pear tree, for example: first spotted about 3,000 years ago at the foot of the Tienshan Mountains, a mountain range in Central Asia. In addition to being fruity, the tree has also been useful for years. Pear wood was found in the remains of prehistoric stilt houses on the Swiss lakes.

In Europe, the apple tree announced spring as early as 10,000 BC. In Southeast Asia, they began cultivating this popular tree about 4000 BC. The edible apple took a while to come, because it required an age-long process of crossing, mixing and blending the 25 wild apple varieties.

Around 70 BC the Roman Lucius Licinius Lucullus took the cherry tree to the West from northeastern Anatolia. Long before that, they had already embraced this type of blossom in Japan. The Japanese have had an important bond with nature for centuries and in the spring this bond blossoms even more during the sakura. Because the sakura is so important, the blossom even became a symbol to motivate the people during the Second World War. It was believed that the souls of the fallen soldiers reincarnated in the cherry blossoms.