Flowering cherries are among the most popular flowering trees in the nation.
The 93rd annual Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington, D.C., is just concluding. Hundreds of thousands of visitors from around the world witnessed the blooming splendor, which peaked between April 6-18.
The festival celebrates the gift of 3,000 cherry trees from the city of Tokyo to the people of Washington in 1912. That gift has transformed the Tidal Basin into a sea of pale pink and white blooms for decades. Most trees are the Yoshino variety, Japan's favorite cultivated cherry tree, which was developed about 1870.
The trees in Washington are propagated from the 1,400-plus-year-old Usuzumi tree growing in a village in Japan. The tree, which isn't common in Utah, was declared a Japanese National Treasure in 1922.
If budget and time constraints didn't allow you to check these trees out, don't despair. You can create a beautiful display in your own garden by planting these and other choice selections. Unlike many of the trees that flourish in the East, most flowering cherries thrive in local landscapes.
Yoshino cherries, which produce a profusion of single white blossoms, is a hybrid of unknown origin that was first discovered in Tokyo in 1872. It is now one of the most popular flowering cherries. The form is a round-topped, wide-spreading tree that reaches 30 to 50 feet at maturity.
Mingled with the Yoshino trees in Washington are a few Akebono cherries, a mutation of the Yoshino cherry with single, pale-pink blossoms introduced by W.B. Clarke of California in 1920. These flower at the same time as the Yoshino cherry.
Akebono trees are also round topped, wide and reach 30 to 50 feet at maturity. This cultivar is losing popularity and is being replaced with the cultivar Afterglow, which has deep pink blossoms that don't fade.
The Kwanzan cherry, named after a mountain in Japan, blooms about two weeks later than the Yoshino. It bears heavy clusters of brilliant pink double blossoms, which makes it a striking tree that grows well in local landscapes.
The Kwanzan cherry is the hardiest and most reliable. The tree grows to 30 feet, with a rounded crown and upright branches. At maturity, the tree is often wider than it is high.
Weeping Japanese cherries also grow throughout Utah, as well as in Washington. They are one of the most popular small trees in Utah landscapes. The flowers are variable and come in both single and double, with colors ranging from dark pink to white. They usually flower about a week before the Yoshino cherries.
There are many cultivars of weeping cherries. The trees, which are usually grafted, grow 20 to 40 feet high, with a round or flattened, gracefully weeping crown.
Some of the most popular cultivars include Pendula Rosea with single deep pink flowers; Pendula Plena Rosea, which features double pink flowers; Pendula Alba, with single white flowers; Rosey Cloud, with double bright pink flowers; and Snowfozam, with single white flowers. (Snowfozam is a personal favorite of mine as it gets only about 12 feet high and 12 feet wide at maturity. It cascades from the height of the graft, and the branches reach the soil.)
Other trees include the Autumn Flowering cherry with semidouble pink flowers. This upright rounded tree is 25-30 feet tall with a 15-20 foot spread. The flowers are semidouble and pink. During warm fall periods they will open sporadically and then fully flower the following spring.
The Sargent cherry has single deep-pink flower clusters. It grows 40-50 feet tall with spreading branches that reach the same width.
The cultivar Fugenzo has double rosy-pink flowers and grows up to 20 feet high and 20 feet wide. The form is a broad crown with branches intercrossing horizontally. This is one of the oldest cultivated cherry trees in Japan. Shirofugen, a cherry that has double white blossoms in large clusters that turn pink with age, are also planted around the national monuments. It is a flat-topped, wide-spreading tree that grows to 20-25 feet.
Takesimensis cherry is an upright spreading tree that reaches 30-40 feet at maturity. The flowers are white and borne in large clusters. It is one of the few cherries tolerant of wet soils. It is not yet common in the nursery trade locally.
Cherries are versatile trees that make good specimens, accents, groups or borders in your landscape. Most are slow growing at first, and they thrive on good soil. Spend some time improving the soil, as these trees are not vigorous when grown in poor or heavy soils.
The fruit on most flowering cherries is very attractive to birds. Although the trees need pruning and are susceptible to borers, they are among the most striking spring flowering landscape trees.
Larry Sagers is the regional horticulturist at Utah State University Extension Service at Thanksgiving Point.