In Japan, the flowering of cherry blossom (Prunus serrulata) – or sakura – is headline news as nightly reports track when and where the flowers appear.
She finally went for an autumn flowering cherry, Prunus x subhirtella 'Autumnalis', an elegant, delicate tree that starts to flower in November and keeps going, intermittently, until late April.
More promising is a hybrid between the Japanese apricot — always the first prunus of the year to flower — and a flowering plum called Bungo.
However many times you point out that this is the autumn-flowering cherry (Prunus subhirtella var. Autumnalis), folks just want to believe that Washington's famous cherry trees are flowering and, thus, April will be all played out.
Curiously, on the far side of the pond, winter-flowering cherry Prunus x subhirtella 'Autumnalis Rosea' is already in full swing.
Benedict, J. C. DeVore, M. L.& Pigg, K. B. Prunus and Oemleria (Rosaceae) Flowers from the Late Early Eocene Republic Flora of Northeastern Washington State, U.S.A.
Deciduous trees also vary in the density of the shade they cast with sycamore (Acer pseudoplatanus), London plane (Platanus x hispanica) and flowering cherries (Prunus) casting unusually dense shade under which relatively few plants will grow.
ON a recent afternoon, as the mercury climbed to 60 degrees, the tantalizing scent of a flowering apricot (Prunus mume) led us around the rumpled boxwood of the 19th-century house to the woods, where rivers of snowdrops (Galanthus nivalis) bloomed beneath the bare branches of tall poplars and gray beech trees.
Columnar flowering peach (Prunus persica 'Corinthian Rose') in the Terrace Gardens.
The grey currawong also eats berries of introduced plants such as Pyracantha angustifolia and P. fortuneana, and Cotoneaster species, and crops such as maize, apples, pears, quince, various stone fruit of the genus Prunus, grapes, tomato, Passion flowers, and the nectar of gymea lily (Doryanthes excelsa).
Inside the old barnyard wall, which holds the heat of the winter sun, I want to plant a Japanese apricot, Prunus mume, whose fragrant winter flowers open as early as February or March.
