Home » Plants & Animals » California Gardening » Flowering Trees

Flowering Trees

© Keith Muraoka

There’s nothing quite like a spring-flowering tree that tells the home gardener that winter is over and spring is upon us. Spring-flowering trees, such as flowering cherries, plums, crab apples and peaches, will bloom even before they leaf out. Clouds of blossoms, mostly pink or white, will cloak bare branches, ready to float away at the slightest puff of wind.

These most-fragile of the first spring flowers transform wintery landscapes seemingly overnight. It’s almost as if fragrant clouds float down to form a canopy. The Japanese call these blossoms “snow flowers” because they resemble soft, fluffy snowflakes cloaking the dark, twiggy branches and because their petals resemble snow as they drift down to earth.

These are called ornamental flowering trees because they are just that: trees that flower rather than bear fruit. There’s also no need to worry about cleaning up after fallen fruit, although some of these trees will bear small non-edible fruits. All are ideal for home gardens in that they’ll remain somewhat small. No need to worry about a 40-foot monster tree dwarfing the yard. Many spring-flowering trees may ultimately reach 25 feet, but can also be kept smaller with annual pruning.

Among the earliest of flowering trees are ornamental plums. These are small trees ideal for home gardens. Plums belong to the large genus “Prunus, which also includes almonds, apricots, peaches and cherries. Flowering plums (Prunus x blireina) are distinguished by their dark leaves, usually bronzy-red or purple. The unusual color of leaves, which remain throughout summer, make flowering plums highly ornamental. Flowers can be single or double-layered, usually pink in color.

Flowering plums were held in such high regard in ancient Japan that it is said in a 17th century document that two gardeners committed suicide when they accidentally broke off a plum branch!

Not to be outdone are flowering cherries. The best known flowering cherries are those surrounding the Tidal Basin in Washington, D.C. Prominent in this planting is the Yoshino cherry (Pruno yedoensis). This cherry possesses an exquisite beauty, dominated by a profusion of small, faintly fragrant flowers that are a soft blush pink to white in color. Flowering cherries are also loved for their form, bark texture and general artistic form.

My absolute personal favorite flowering tree is the weeping flowering cherry. This weeping tree takes on the form of a weeping willow, with pendulous branches that cascade all the way to the ground. When blooming, the tree looks like a shimmering pink fountain.

The copyright of the article Flowering Trees in California Gardening is owned by . Permission to republish Flowering Trees in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.