I was one of the lucky ones to acquire a fudan zakura during the UBC tree sale in the spring. The little tree has been doing well, put on some height and has now dropped almost all its it leaves. But I noticed today 2 little blossoms and what look to be more flower buds. I've never had an ornamental cherry before so I was wondering, is this normal? Should I be worried that the tree is expending all this energy when we'll soon be going into winter? Thanks
Yes and yes, but there is nothing you can do about it. Actually, thanks for posting this. I've been wondering if this does the very early pre-season appearance of a few flowers in late fall, as 'Autumnalis Rosea', 'Whitcomb' and 'Accolade' do, since we have caught its blooms around the time that those cultivars are blooming. Your photo is the first evidence (that I recall) that it does that here. In our Ornamental Cherries book, Douglas Justice says that the name means "cherry without interruption". I think that for all of those, if they didn't open those flowers prematurely in the winter, they would add to the show in the spring. That's probably why for this one, as Douglas notes, the main flush of flowering is "somewhat less than exuberant". You really don't have to worry about two flowers though! Or even a bunch of flowers. It's not going to open a lot of flowers now, and if we get the predicted cold weather, it will go back to sleep. I'm looking forward to seeing spring photos of a nice young tree of this cultivar. I hope you'll post some, either here or in the Neighbourhood Blog for your area if it's not hidden in your back yard. I'm a little surprised how green the sepals are. I'd like to see photos of those in the spring too.
Thanks! I was just very shocked to see the flowers, I always though cherries flowered in the spring. I will continue to post photos of its progress and hopefully in the spring it will have even more.
Not all of them do. The trees along Nanaimo north of Adanac (there are some on Turner St. east of Nanaimo too) are out now. They've been flowering in the winter for as long as I've lived here -- 21 years.
Yes! Those are 'Autumnalis Rosea'. If you catch the Turner St ones looking colourful, you could post a photo of them as a reply in the Hastings-Sunrise thread. I've posted them twice, but not in bloom - here is one: posting #68 in Hastings-Sunrise.
