‘Shujaku’ (red fire bird), occasionally spelled Suzaku. A distinctive, late blooming Sato-zakura (Japanese village cherry) with an open crown of spreading branches. The lively, shell-pink flowers emerge just before or at the same time as the leaves and hang below the branches in generous clusters on long pedicels (shorter in prolonged cool weather). Individual flowers are somewhat bell-shaped, about 4 cm in diameter and have between five and ten petals, including petaloids (incomplete petals). The flowers on this cultivar fade to light pink, but then become stained red in the centre before falling. In Japanese mythology, Shujaku is the phoenix-like bird who guarded the southern sky. This cultivar is known from about 1830 and is exceedingly rare in the Vancouver area.
