Identification: Prunus 'Pink Cloud' - Single pink flowers, mid-season

Medium growing,
willowy, round,
upright tree.
Does well in mild winter climates.
raised by Felix Jury.

 

Re: P. Serrulata 'Pink Cloud' - Single pink flowers, mid-season

I have one of these perhaps 40' tall. According to North American Landscape Trees (1996 Arthur Lee Jacobson) it's a chance seedling found in Huntington Gardens, San Marino, California and named, distributed during the 1980s. Nurseries had it by 1991 [stock seen occasionally at garden centers up here at present comes from L.E. Cooke Company in Visalia]. Probably a form of P. speciosa, maybe crossed with P. campanulata. P. serrulata 'Pink Cloud' is a synonym.

When I've looked in the past the Huntington Gardens web pages have shown a photo (taken from a bit of a distance) of what appears to be the same tree as Cooke sells, in flower. Probably in conjunction with looking for the California tree I became aware of the same cultivar name being used for the Jury introduction, think I saw descriptive information or even a photo or two indicating this looked much more like P. campanulata - and was therefore a different cultivar.

 

Re: P. Serrulata 'Pink Cloud' - Single pink flowers, mid-season

Is it worth cultivating?

 

Recent flowerings here have been conspicuous and appealing. For some years prior pendent flowers less impressive than might be desired, rapidly overtaken by leaves. Apparently another instance of a cultivar needing some time to develop before being evaluated.

My specimen is grafted onto sweet cherry, which as is so often the case when this stock is used soon made a thick protruding root that gets barked by lawn mowers. Need to remember to put topsoil around it to raise mowing level, damage has been occurring for years - am concerned about possible resulting internal decay extending into trunk and destroying specimen.

There was also a year when gummosis appeared on the sweet cherry trunk, but this has not been a recurring phenomenon associated with a conspicuous problem like cankers or boring.

Was also a slight amount of twig blight at one point, this likewise did not persist or develop into a marring condition.

 

Most cherry trees in Balboa Park in Van Nuys, CA ( Los Angeles ) are 'Pink Clouds'
http://www.flickr.com/photos/itookpictures/383020140/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mambastic/2338929567/

 

Notice the low forking of the Balboa planting, as opposed to mine which came perched on a pole of sweet cherry. For a time I was able to see habit photos of a short row of heavily pruned stock plants on the L.E. Cooke site. As I remember it these also had short trunks. The page I get today shows an inflorescence close-up, with only a little of the habit visible.

http://www.lecooke.com/Images/Flowering/Cherries/Pink_Cloud(CMYK).pdf

Of course, these specimens are so distorted by pruning (to obtain propagation material) that there was not much point in showing their habit.

 

Here are some I took at Lake Balboa Park in Van Nuys

I also used a U.S. quarter to measure. Sorry I don't have any Canadian currency

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4043/4458325932_92c550dae3_b.jpg
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4040/4457549433_53859c9eba_b.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2483/4456951906_5cfeba88b5_b.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2761/4456173937_785f57998d_b.jpg
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4034/4456944324_14a4155397_b.jpg

 

Added the size comparison

 

Mine has never been this spectacular, suggesting there may be a superior performance associated with location in warm climates like that of southern California. In other words, it's not just one that can be gotten to do well down there, but it is one that actually does better down there.

 

I think it's the only type that does well around here :D

 

Mine was removed eventually - although interested in the cultivar I just never really warmed up to the specimen in my garden. And I became concerned about what the Prunus avium - a nuisance species in this region - roots might do later. I do have a much smaller example still going on a Camano Island property but the friend there is in poor health, leaving the future of this tree - and other plantings I have made there - in doubt.

 

@Imperfect Ending, do you have the blooming date for these cherries? Could you check the photo dates? Have you seen them in more than one year? Were the dates about the same?

I'm wondering if these would be good for Hawai'i, where the town of Wahiawa celebrates the Taiwan Cherry that can do well in mild climates, but still needs the cold evenings that occur in this one location on O'ahu. Honolulu has a cherry blossom festival, but I think it occurs later than these would bloom. It seems like it would be nice for the festival to have some actual sakura in bloom. Maybe they could change the date if they had cherries, but maybe the festival is more of a promotional gimmick to get visitors to come after the winter tourist rush. There are a lot of maybes here.

 

I would put it
the cold evenings that occur in this one municipal location on O'ahu - surely there are comparable or lower temperatures in the mountains of the same island.

 

Agreed.