Right On Schedule

There are some things that happen once a year, monumental things, things that get recorded due to their extreme importance, things that are brief in duration, but exquisitely beautiful. We count among those things the blooming of the Yoshino Cherry tree, Prunus Yedoensis, which is planted right in the middle of our front yard. This is the type of cherry tree planted in the tidal basin of Washington, D. C. which is celebrated in that city’s cherry blossom festival. Click
here
to view the official site for that event.

We have no lawn in our front yard. After the house was remodeled, once the sawhorses, lumber scraps, roof shingles, burger wrappers, drink cups and cigarette butts were all picked up, the sparse grass was dug up from the area. Rose Glo Barbarries, Girard’s Rose Azaleas, and Winterberry Hollies fill the level part that used to be mown. Lamb’s Ear was the ground cover between these shrubs and was mown once a year after it bloomed to remove the brown flower spikes and spread the seeds. We needed some vertical interest since all those shrubs were of a similar size. A small flowering tree was purchased at the big box store on sale. It was late fall, time to get those Christmas trees in and live material off the shelves. It was 2001. In late March of the following year, the tree bloomed. In less than a week, the petals were released from the blossoms and gently floated to the ground. By the next year, the tree had grown substantially and bloomed again in late March. This time we were the proud owners of a digital camera and captured that bloom in pixels, the year was 2003.

We were taking a lot of photos of the garden with the easy to use camera. The greatest thing about it was being able to run inside and load the pictures onto the computer immediately. And we could send them in emails to our friends and family. What a joy it was to be able to share the garden via the internet. While we liked to send shots of the flowers blooming, there was a fascination with the garden covered with the light blankets of snow that occasionally fell. Our cherry tree was decorated with lights encased in grape vine balls and was enchanting with the snow dusting. The tree was still small enought to reach the branches while standing on a small ladder to add and then subtract the light strings. This was a one time only happening, as the tree grew too large to decorate safely.

Each year the tree would grow a little more. The blooming was duly recorded with the camera.

The horizontal growth pattern was starting to show in the limbs of our dear tree. Some pruning was done to thin the middle for what was considered a more Asian style. One branch in particular was growing right out into the street. Another was headed for the telephone line going to the house next door. Pruning was done to remove these two large limbs. Why didn’t we see that coming? If done early on, the pruning could have been done while standing on the ground with the felcos. We used a small pruning saw to remove the future problem branches. The wounds were gaping, we dripped candle wax over them to keep insects out while the bark could heal over the cuts. It seems to have been a success.

All branches were growing in a non threatening direction now. Another late March passed with the cherry tree in blossom. It was now 2007, the year of the late hard killing freeze. But the freeze occurred in early April. The bloom was over for the tree before the freeze. No blooms were lost.

We even planted the same type of tree at one of the offspring’s houses, replacing a red maple planted by the builder of their new house with the smaller cherry. The red maple was relocated to the back where it would have room to spread over time and the roots would not threaten the driveway or foundation. The year was 2003. Light pruning has been done to remove rubbing branches and some of the lower limbs were cut to allow for easy passage in the small front yard. This is the bloom for this year, 2008.

This type of tree has become very popular not only in home gardens, but is used extensively in commercial areas as well. These rows of cherries line a large shopping center in Knoxville that is less than ten years old. The trees are well cared for, mulched properly, no volcanoes, and are underplanted with small hollies. Our rainfall is normally enough to keep plantings like these healthy, there are no sprinkler systems here.

The color of the blossoms is the palest possible pink, nearly white. The stamens are tinged with pink at the tips giving a little more color to the look from afar.

Our own tree this year, in peak bloom, every bud open, on March 30. It gives us great pleasure during the week it is open, and beyond that as the petals litter the earth, a magical sight. It is right on schedule.

Frances

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