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The Earliest Blooming Trees

© Susan Ward

To me, the delicate pink blooms of flowering cherry and plum trees are the true herald of spring. Which is why, when it comes to ornamental fruit trees, I believe that the sooner they bloom, the better! Here's a collection of flowering cherries, apricots, and plums that bloom first each year.

What about fall? There's no need to wait until spring to see a flowering cherry. Prunus subhirtella 'Autumnalis' has small, pink-tinged white, semi-double flowers, and starts blooming in fall. It will continue to bloom sporadically throughout the winter, finishing with a flourish of blooms just around crocus season. 'Autumnalis Rosea' follows the same pattern but has pink flowers, while 'Fukubana' produces semi-double dark rose-pink flowers. Think how much more beautiful your yard would be throughout the winter with one of these.

Did you know that ornamental trees always follow the same blooming sequence? The exact date that any of these trees blooms will depend on the weather in any given year, but they always bloom in the same sequence.

As Prunus subhirtella finishes, Prunus mume begins. Prunus mume, a.k.a. Japanese Apricot, is another flowering tree that blooms very early, bearing bowl-shaped white to dark pink flowers (depending on which variety you choose) on bare shoots in late winter and early spring. Small hairy apricot-like yellow fruits follow (which are not edible). Some varieties, such as 'Dawn', which produces double, ruffled pink flowers, have a height and spread of only 8 feet, making them ideal for small suburban gardens.

Next in the blooming sequence of pink-flowering early blooming trees is Prunus cerasifera 'Pissardii', a.k.a. the Cherry Plum. This is the one that bears masses of small pale pink single flowers and has dark purple leaves all summer - and actually produces small, edible plums, too. Because 'Pissardii' grows to about 25 feet, you might prefer its offspring, the ornamental hybrid Prunus x cistena (Purple Sand Cherry), a vase-shaped shrub that grows only 6 to 10 feet tall, but looks exactly like 'Pissardii' in all other respects.

Prunus x blireana is another excellent choice for suburban and urban gardens, as it has a height and spread of only 12 feet. It bears bright pink, fully double small flowers before the leaves in early spring and has red-purple leaves which fade to bronze by mid-summer.

After the flowering plums come the majority of the flowering cherries, which I'll write about next time. You should be able to find any or all of the early blooming spring trees I've mentioned here at your local garden centre - and see them blooming soon around your town.