April 17, 2023. Our popular widely planted ‘Akebono’ trees are starting to fade, and it’s not quite time yet for the even more widely-planted ‘Kanzan’ trees, so it’s time for us to notice some of the rare gems. Here are yet more single-whites, flowers with just five petals.
The flowers on the Oshima-zakura cherry look ever-so-much like those of ‘Umineko’ and ‘Snow Goose’ (featured at Yesterday’s news – Single whites: ‘Somei-yoshino’, ‘Akebono’ and ‘Umineko’/’Snow Goose’ – Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival (vcbf.ca), of which it is one of the parents. But they are fragrant, and the tree shape is wide-spreading instead of upright.
Notice how smooth the petal edges are on the Oshima-zakura above. Now check out the jagged petal edges on this ‘Washi-no-o’. It’s name means “eagle’s tail”. These flowers are also fragrant.
‘Tai-haku’, the “great white cherry”, are trees with substantial broad-spreading limbs when they are allowed the space to grow to their potential. The flowers are themselves of great size (for a cherry) – they can be up to 6 cm across, and the petals are quite rounded, making the flowers look even larger, particularly as they are bracketed by shiny bronze leaves (the leaves here have just emerged; check back in a week or so for a better photo).
