Hello everyone, I live in Seatle, WA and I'm thinking about planting a cherry tree in my front yard. It will be beautiful (I think). I haven't seen many cherry trees so I did internet search and found your forum. At first, I was going to get a Yoshino because they say it's famous in Japan but after reading this forum, I found that there is another type called Akebono. My questions: 1. So, Akebono is more pink than Yoshino? How much more pink is it? I tried to look at pictures but I can't find the difference (they look the same to me) maybe because of the resolution of the pictures, I don't know... I don't want too much pink like Kwanzan though. If anyone has a close-up picture of the petals for both Yoshino and Akebono, please let me see so I can compare the color better. 2. Is Yoshino really white? Is it like plain white or is it like a little pink? 3. Are they the same height at full growth? Is one of them smaller than the other? 4. Is witchbroom really bad for the cherry trees? Akebono is less likely to get it than Yoshino, correct? Thank you everyone in advance for answering. All comments/tips/suggestions are appreciated.
'Akebono' is far more lovely and does not grow as large. However, rather than planting either of these highly abundant kinds I might hunt around for 'Afterglow' as the small number of these I have seen here I thought rather striking in flower. From a distance it looks like 'Whitcomb' but up close it has some other things going on. It may also be a little more appealing out of bloom - the Yoshino cherries are very utilitarian-looking most of the year. While this has been common on the national wholesale market in the past I don't know where to buy it retail at the present time, in this area. Presumably an internet search would turn up a mailorder source somewhere in the country. See Jacobson, TREES OF SEATTLE - SECOND EDITION for the location of an 'Afterglow' street tree planting and more information about Japanese flowering cherries, including Yoshino cherries. Jacobson says 'Afterglow' also has better fall color. While numerous branch proliferations are seen on some sweet cherries in this region I am not seeing it on Yoshino cherries here.
I have moved this thread to the Growing Ornamental Cherries forum. It sort of belongs in Cultivar IDs, where it was originally posted, but the discussion is heading more toward what to plant and I'm hoping the Growing forum will have discussions like that (with replies!). The trees that Ron mentions might be the ones pictured in this thread. They certainly were very nice. If you have a lot of horizontal space, 'Shirotae' is good for a white tree with green leaves that blooms in April and 'Shirofugen' for a pinky-white to white to pink tree with bronze new leaves that blooms very late April-May. In Vancouver, there are a lot of these two, and hardly any of 'Afterglow'.
I am sure the ones found this spring in Vancouver (link above) are 'Afterglow'. They look just like the ones in Seattle.
