Popular Flowering Cherry Trees for the Garden
Ornamental Cherries are Easy to Grow in Any Temperate Climate
Jan 31, 2009
Ornamental Cherries are deservedly one of the popular flowering trees for the small or medium garden. They come in a wonderful variety of shapes and sizes, and include several quite small trees, so that you’ll find one for almost any garden, however big or small. They are easy to grow: hardy, disease resistant, generally pest free and needing little or no pruning. Some also attract butterflies to the garden, providing food for the caterpillars or nectar for the adult butterflies.
Origin
Most Ornamental Cherries, of the genus Prunus, originate in Japan, although there is one native English species, the white flowered Bird Cherry Prunus padus. One or two native European and American species are also cultivated by gardeners.
Flowering Period
For most prunus species, the main flowering period is from March to May, although one, Prunus autumnalis, carries delicate pink or white blossoms on its bare branches from October or November right through until March. But in Britain most ornamental cherries are at their very best in April, covered in an abundance of sumptuous flower, both single and double, from the purest white, through every shade of pink to crimson-red.
Popular Species and Varieties
Specialist nurseries like Barcham Trees of Ely and good garden centres offer a wide range of flowering cherries. Some of the most popular and interesting are:
Prunus Kanzan
Big bold double pink flowers in late April. The foliage is a lovely copper tint when young. Unpruned height up to 8 metres and spread to 6 metres.
Prunus Shirotae
Single or semi-double white flowers in late April, and coppery young foliage. Size as for Kanzan.
Prunus Sargentii
Big clusters of clear pink flower in late March. Notable for its bright autumn leaf colour, the bronze red young leaves turning orange and crimson in early autumn. Size as for Kanzan.
Prunus Serrula
Fairly unspectacular white flowers in April. Grow this instead for its splendid, shining, bright red-brown peeling bark. Size as for Kanzan.
Prunus Amanagowa
Abundant soft pink flowers in April and May. This is a particularly good tree for a small space, with a columnar shape like a small Lombardy Poplar or Cypress, up to 8 metres tall but no more than 2 - 2 ½ metres in spread.
Prunus Kiku shidare or Cheal’s Weeping Cherry
Deep pink double flowers crowd the arching, trailing branches in March and April. Rarely more than 4 meters high, most specimens can be kept much smaller by pruning if space is restricted.
Prunus Virginiana Schubert
Pendulous spikes of white flower in spring, with glossy red mature leaves. Height 3 metres spread 2 ½ metres.
Prunus Ukon
Abundant semi-double white flowers and attractive red and purple autumn leaves. Height 6 metres spread 3 metres.
Prunus x cistena
Actually a flowering plum, but included here because its deep pink cherry-like flowers and bronze leaves are so lovely, and also because it’s so small at 1 ½ metres height and spread that you can easily grow it in a pot on a patio. It also makes a beautiful hedging plant.
Other Ornamental Trees for the GardenFor added colour in you garden at other times of year why not consider the later flowering lilac, holly for its glossy leaves and bright winter berries, and acers or maples for their attractive foliage and bark, and brilliant autumn colour.
