Plant Library

Other Names:  Ornamental Cherry

Description:

A beautiful spring flowering accent tree, featuring rich, bright pink flowers before the leaves, attractive reddish-brown bark and an arching, vase shaped habit of growth; needs full sun and well-drained soil; has a high tolerance to insects and disease

Ornamental Features

Okame Flowering Cherry is smothered in stunning clusters of lightly-scented pink flowers along the branches in early spring, which emerge from distinctive rose flower buds before the leaves. It has forest green deciduous foliage. The pointy leaves turn outstanding shades of orange and red in the fall. The fruits are showy black drupes displayed in mid summer. The smooth dark red bark adds an interesting dimension to the landscape.

Landscape Attributes

Okame Flowering Cherry is a deciduous tree with an indistinguished habit of growth. Its average texture blends into the landscape, but can be balanced by one or two finer or coarser trees or shrubs for an effective composition.

This is a relatively low maintenance tree, and is best pruned in late winter once the threat of extreme cold has passed. It is a good choice for attracting birds to your yard. It has no significant negative characteristics.

Okame Flowering Cherry is recommended for the following landscape applications;

• Accent
• Shade

Planting & Growing

Okame Flowering Cherry will grow to be about 20 feet tall at maturity, with a spread of 15 feet. It has a low canopy with a typical clearance of 4 feet from the ground, and is suitable for planting under power lines. It grows at a medium rate, and under ideal conditions can be expected to live for 50 years or more.

This tree should only be grown in full sunlight. It does best in average to evenly moist conditions, but will not tolerate standing water. It is not particular as to soil pH, but grows best in rich soils. It is highly tolerant of urban pollution and will even thrive in inner city environments. This particular variety is an interspecific hybrid.