Does anyone know the ornamental Cherry named Fukubana in Vancouver or in North America?

Discussion in 'Ornamental Cherries' started by eteinindia, Oct 22, 2019.

  1. eteinindia

    eteinindia Well-Known Member VCBF Cherry Scout 10 Years

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    There was an annual meeting of Japan Sakura Society on October 19, 2019 at Tamagawa Gakuen University in Kanagawa next to Tokyo Prefecture. There I met Mr. Ohara of Sakura handbook who is working for Toyama Botanical Garden.

    Now he is interested in cherries outside Japan. Before I gave him the booklet of "Ornamental Cherries in Vancouver". He asked me about Fukubana. I haven’t heard of it in Vancouver. He said Fukubana was widespread in Europe. He’d like to know it is well-known in North America or not.
    Mr.Fukuba introduced it to Europe but now it’s lost in Japan or just recently found again in Japan in other name.

    Dose anyone know Fukubana in Vancouver or in North America?

    Thank you.
     
  2. Ron B

    Ron B Paragon of Plants 10 Years

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    There used to be one in the Carl English Garden at the government locks in Seattle but it appears to have been gone for some years now. Otherwise the 1996 Ten Speed Press book North American Landscape Trees by Arthur Lee Jacobson says the cultivar was being grown in California before 1927, was probably no longer being offered commercially by the 1970s and had become "very rare" (by 1995). Since Jacobson mentions in the book a California history particularly it seems possible a public or private tree collection or other type of display - such as a Japanese garden - there may still have one.

    Regarding other names Jacobson (same) treats the tree as

    Prunus pendula 'Fukubana'

    and lists these synonyms for it:

    P. x subhirtella 'Fukubana'
    P. x subhirtella 'Momi-jigari'
    P. x subhirtella 'Roseo-plena'
    P. x subhirtella 'Spring Glory'
    P. serrulata 'Fukubana'
     
    Last edited: Oct 22, 2019
  3. eteinindia

    eteinindia Well-Known Member VCBF Cherry Scout 10 Years

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    Thank you, Ron.
    You're always very helpful to us,
    You must read a lot and you can remember them well. Wonderful!!
    The Climate of North America didn't suit Fukubana.
    Anyway, I will email to Mr. Oohara.
    Thank you, again.
     
  4. Ron B

    Ron B Paragon of Plants 10 Years

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    The one in the Carl English Garden was there long enough to grow maybe 15' tall or more, have a trunk of some diameter. And California has climates that are not present elsewhere in North America, permit for instance the commercial production of Prunus mume cultivars. So I would search any print or web listings of California collections you can find before deciding it is not still present there somewhere. In addition various other P. pendula selections are highly prevalent in the Pacific Northwest and Lower Mainland - I don't know why the 'Fukubana' at the locks was removed, maybe it just got old. Or it had a bad blight episode one spring and was taken out instead of being allowed or encouraged to restore itself. And why would 'Fukubana' grow adequately in Britain (and perhaps Northern Europe) but not
    here?

    By the way there is a repeatedly stated convention that 'Fukubana' was introduced to Britain from California by Collingwood Ingram in 1927 - maybe this is how Jacobson (North American Landscape Trees) determined that it was being grown in CA before 1927.
     
    Last edited: Oct 23, 2019
  5. eteinindia

    eteinindia Well-Known Member VCBF Cherry Scout 10 Years

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    Thank you, Ron.
    Now I understood about the one in the carl English Garden. It must had been a big marvelous tree. But somehow it was lost.
    When I first read about it, I thought it was like the Himalayan Cherries in Koishikawa Botanical Garden. I have read Tokyo is too cold for Himalayan cherries. But the tree must had been more than 10 years old and it looked settled there. It survived very cold and snowy Februaries. But one heavy snow in December, when leaves started growing, killed the tree. They planted new one. But it's gone in a few years.
    The Fukubana wasn't like the Himalayan Cherries and the climate in California is warmer than Tokyo. I'm not quite sure about the climate in Seattle but it must be all right.

    Also I wondered whether it was completely lost or not. In Japan when people see good flowering tree. they ask the owner a branch or even a twig of the tree. We can sasilly make new plants by cuttings of Rose, Hydrangea, Mume, Azarea and so on. Some Cherries are suited for cutting. I think P. pendula is good for cutting. Cutting is much easier than grafting. I thought the climate in Vancouver was too cold for cutting. Anyway if it's a good cherry, some people keep it at their gardens.

    I also wonder about the tale of Mr. Fukuba and Fukubana. I couldn't find anything about it. The story of Collingwood Ingram is more likely. But Ingram must find the cherry somewhere in Japan or from some Japanese. So he named it Fukubana. It can be from Mr. Fukuba +Hana, flower. It can also be Fuku, good fortune, +Hana,flower,

    Anyway I'll write e-mail to Mr Oohara and ask more about Fukubana. But unfortunately I couldn't find his email address. I will write to the botanical Garden.
     
  6. Ron B

    Ron B Paragon of Plants 10 Years

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    Western enthusiasts sometimes give western origin selections of Japanese garden plants Japanese cultivar names - it does not automatically follow that if a cultivar has a Japanese name it is of Japanese origin. But in the case of 'Fukubana' maybe it was already rare in Japan by 1927 and that was why Ingram got it in California instead. It having been taken to California before making it to Britain.

    Ingram is the same one who found a single tree of 'Tai-haku' growing in a British garden in 1923, after it had become extinct in Japan, and was therefore able to reintroduce the variety to Japan in 1932. This British specimen had come from Japan in 1900.
     
  7. eteinindia

    eteinindia Well-Known Member VCBF Cherry Scout 10 Years

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    Non Japanese people give their new cherries Japanese names like Akebono, Umineko, Okame, Atsumori. At that time people usually use Japanese words which exist in Japanese. But Fukubana is a coined word which doesn't exist in Japanese language. It can be a name of shops, restaurants or companies. So I think there must be some reason he named ti Fukubana.

    Ingram is now getting well known in Japan. Because the book 'cherry' Ingram written by Naoko Abe was published 3 years ago. I bought it before but I haven't read it yet. I wonder it's the same book which Wendy read.
    Anyway, Tai-haku survived in Japan under the different name, Koma-tsuagi. I have seen Tai-haku and Koma-tsunagi in Japan. But no flowers of them are as big as Tai-haku in Vancouver. When you see Tai-haku in Vancouver, you feel it's a very reasonable name; very big and white. When you see Tai-haku in Koishikawa BG or Koma-tsunagi in Torinuke, chichibu, you thing it's bigger than usual. But you don't think extremely big. Tai-Haku is also a coined word. But it was named by Funatsu or Ingram named it with Funatsu.


    By the way, I'm not quite sure Atsumori is made from Japanese cherries outside of Japan. But I haven't heard of it in Japan. There is Atusmori-zakura festival in Suma where Atsumori was killed. But the name isn't a cultivar name. Also I couldn't find it in the web except Vancouver and Victoria.
    I asked some professional and he suggested me connection with a cherry named Kumagai. Because there is a famous story; a young warrior Atsumori Taira had a one-on-one battle with a veteran warrior, Saneatsu Kumagai and lost in 1184. There also is Kumagai-zakura. But it is Prunus incisa. Very confusing !!
     
  8. wcutler

    wcutler Paragon of Plants Forums Moderator VCBF Cherry Scout 10 Years

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    It is essentially the same book, but for the international edition, she did more research in England and also in Japan to add more historical and cultural details that would be unfamiliar to us.
     
  9. eteinindia

    eteinindia Well-Known Member VCBF Cherry Scout 10 Years

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    I contacted with Mr. Oohara about Fukubana. He wrote back soon and asked me to write in English, but I didn’t have time to write.

    Mr. Oohara first saw Fukubana in England. He hadn’t seen or even heard of it. He checked Ingram’s ‘Ornamental Cherry’ and knew it first come in the 22nd volume of Botanical Magazine Tokyo, Dec.1888. Tomitaro Makino wrote ‘Observation on the Flora of Japan’(p.113-120)there. He thought Fukubana was a variety of Kohigan, Prunus subhirtella and named it Yaehigan, Prunus subhirtella var. fukubana.

    He dedicated it to Viscount Hayato Fukuba, Director of the Naiyen-ryo, Imperial Household Department, which now became Shinjuku Gyoen Park. I attached the page 118 &119 of Botanical magazine of japan which Mr. Oohara sent me.
    botanicalmagazin22toky_0136(2019,10.30Mr..Oohara).jpg botanicalmagazin22toky_0137(2019.10.30Mr.Oohara).jpg

    Mr. Oohara thinks it is almost same as Kohigan, just a cultivate variety. So he thinks science name should be P. subhirtella ‘Fukuban’.
     
    Last edited: Nov 4, 2019
  10. Ron B

    Ron B Paragon of Plants 10 Years

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    Prunus x subhirtella 'Fukubana' is already how it has been listed the whole time in the past, at least in the West.
     
  11. Ron B

    Ron B Paragon of Plants 10 Years

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  12. wcutler

    wcutler Paragon of Plants Forums Moderator VCBF Cherry Scout 10 Years

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    Thanks. I am trying to convince someone who spends time in Victoria and likes taking photos to make a reminder to go see these in the spring. Or anyone reading this, your photos will be very welcome. Maybe start looking around mid-February.
     
  13. Living Collector

    Living Collector New Member

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    Hello! I'm the Living Collections Fellow for an organization called The Trustees in Massachusetts, USA. I'm currently working on nomenclature for one of our historical public gardens called Long Hill, in Beverly Ma, where we have a Fukubana that is very old. Can I talk to you further about your conversations with Mr. Oohara?
     
  14. Living Collector

    Living Collector New Member

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    @eteinindia, bump for my above question from 2020. We have a 'Fukubana' in Massachusetts planted in 1945. I've tried emailing Dr. Oohara and the Toyama Botanical Garden, with no replies. Would still love to connect with someone about this tree. We're currently trying to propagate to share.
     
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  15. CarmelRose

    CarmelRose New Member

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    Hi Living Collector, I'd love to get some seeds of P. mume from anywhere there is a fruiting tree! If you have access to any where you can obtain ripe fruit--so the seeds will be mature--please do contact me. I'd like to start a collection, grown from seed, and see what I come up with. I am in Nova Scotia, and it's difficult to get plants, but seed is legit to post into the country. I'll gladly pay for seeds if you know anyone with a source as well! thanks.
     

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