White Flowered Japanese Cherry Trees

Prunus Umineko

An upright flowing cherry with large single white flowers about 1¼ inches wide in stalked umbels which come together with new green leaves in mid to late April.  The flowers have pink stamens which become more pronounced as the flower ages.   The regular upright habit makes this a good avenue tree.

Prunus Umineko is a cross between Prunus Speciosa,  Oshima Cherry and Prunus Incisa, Fuji Cherry, raised by Collingwood Ingram in the 1920’s,  The same cross was made in Holland by Mr Doorenbos and this has produced an almost identical tree, named ‘Snow Goose’.

Rather picturesquely Umineko is the Japanese name for ‘White-tailed sea-eagle’

The ‘Umineko no Naku Koro ni’ visual novel series features an extensive cast of characters created and originally illustrated by  Ryukishi07. The series takes place on the fictional secluded island Rokkenjima in Japan.

Prunus Tai Haku

Flowering at the same time as Prunus Umineko,  Prunus Tai Haku, known as the Great White Cherry also has single white flowers, however the flowers are much larger, 2½ inches across and pure white.

Prunus Tai Haku is a vigorous wide spreading tree from Kyoto which became extinct in Japan and was reintroduced from a single specimen found in a Sussex Garden.

As always comments and questions are welcome.

Simon

In almost everyone’s list of the best trees for small gardens, this North American deciduous plant is either described as large shrub or a small tree of bushy spreading habit.

This tree has a lot to recommend it, wonderful white blossom that emerges as star-shaped flowers in lax conical heads, just as the coppery pink young leaves unfold.  The leaves unfurl as the flowers fade and change to a pale green.  Small red berries which turn black in late June, give it it’s American name ‘Juneberry ‘ these are quickly eaten by blackbirds which seem to relish them.

In Autumn the leaves turn fiery shades of yellow, orange and red.

Amalanchier lamarkii (which is often confusingly call Amalanchier Canadensis)  has become naturalised and will grow easily in most conditions, it is sometimes reported  not to be lime tolerant, but we have not found that to be the case.

As Easter is the traditional end of the season for bare root plants we will this week be removing bare root trees and transplants from the online shop. For these plants under the column inviting you to specify the quantity you require you will see the message ‘Call us’

They will not now be available for dispatch again until November.

However as the very long cold winter has made spring late this year we will carry on dispatching transplants and trees ordered by telephone or by nursery visitors, if they are still available from stock.

As is usual bare root plants supplied this late,  will be on an ‘At your own risk’ basis, which reflects that once the buds have broken much more care needs to be taken in plant handling, though with the appropriate care many species can be successfully transplanted late.

If you still want to plant trees we have most of our ornamental and fruit trees available in either 15L or 30L pots, these are available to buy online, by phone or by visiting the nursery.

If you would like to pre order bare root plants for next season the best way to currently do this is either phone us or send us an email with the plants you would like to reserve.