librarian2003 (librarian2003) wrote in weagardening, @ 2008-06-11 10:36:00 |
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Current mood: | drained |
Summer term week 1: Plant of the week - Fuji cherry
I know I've been really, really remiss in not keeping this journal up-to-date, but I promise to try and do better! And I've been heartened by the people who have said they miss it!
So, I shall catch up with what we've been doing. The images that we've seen might take a little longer to download.
Our first plant of the week was the Fuji cherry, Prunus incisa ‘Kojo-no-mai’.
Here's the handout:
GARDENING FOR PLEASURE
Plant of the Week
Prunus incisa ‘Kojo-no-mai’ : Fuji Cherry
Fuji Cherry is the perfect spring flowering plant for a small garden, and can be grown in a container or in the ground. Prunus incisa is found in the wild growing on the volcanic slopes of Mount Fuji, which is often surrounded by low cloud.
‘Kojo-no-mai’ is an easy plant to grow and it wants to flower profusely. Its slightly twisted wiry twigs are completely covered in buds that open to blush-white saucers studded with pink. For at least three weeks in very early spring the dark tangle of stems is smothered in pale blossom. It isn’t a tree, but a compact slow-growing shrub that can be kept to 3ft, so that the pale blossom can be seen against the bare earth. It can be pruned after flowering, to restrict growth, and it can also be used as a low hedge.
Forms of P. incisa do best in free-draining soil that retains some moisture. Add organic matter to heavy soil to help drainage. ‘Kojo-no-mai’ will bud up well even in semi-shade, and it will look best in a sheltered place close to trees or larger shrubs. These will not only protect the blossom from frost damage, but will also cast dappled shade that makes pale pink stand out well.
Propagate by softwood cuttings in June, which should root easily, and can be potted up singly in autumn or in the following spring.
‘Kojo-no-mai’ is popular in Japan where it is often seen as a bonsai specimen.
It is an ideal partner for spring-flowering woodlanders. Use it as a pale pink backdrop against dark oriental hellebores, which can get lost against bare earth, or surround it with contrasting miniature blue bulbs.
The new foliage appears as the flowers fade and the bronze tint flatters later-flowering miniature bulbs – for example Narcissus ‘Jack Snipe’ or N. ‘White Lady’. The early pink-red flowers of Pulmonaria ‘Leopard’, or P. ‘Redstart’, flatter the pale blossom, or try the violet-flowered ‘Diana Clare’, the blue ‘Trevi Fountain’ or pink P. saccharata ‘Dora Bielefeld’.
Prunus incisa is the parent of many excellent cherries, including the white ‘Umineko’, the shell-pink ‘Okame’, and the winter-flowering P. x subhirtella ‘Autumnalis’. There is also another larger shrub or small tree, P. incisa ‘Praecox’ AGM, which is winter flowering. Another early form, ‘February Pink’, has pale pink flowers in winter and early spring and these are followed by tiny reddish fruits. ‘Mikinori’, a new form, is a shrubby plant with fuller, semi-double, white to pale pink flowers, with a darker crimson eye and frillier flowers than ‘Kojo-no-mai’.
All forms colour up well in autumn, usually going from mid-green to yellow. But some forms develop red to purple hues.
Jo Hanslip
April 2008
Images are at Photobucket:
Prunus incisa
Welcome back!
Jo