Japanese Flowering Apricot is a Winter Extravaganza
I
magine this scenario: it’s a bleak winter morning in early February – that colorless sort of day when the sky is the same shade of gray as the pavement. All of a sudden, from the car, you catch a glimpse of a little tree blooming gloriously, a profusion of pink flowers against the drab backdrop of sky.
This happened to me twice last week while I was driving in my neighborhood. At this time of year, such a sight can only be one thing – the Japanese flowering apricot tree, Prunus mume. It’s an amazing sight in the dead of winter, much more showy than the autumn flowering cherry, which sometimes puts out flowers at this time of year but is generally easy to pass by without noticing.
A few days ago my friend Sandra Jonas, of Recreating Eden Landscape Design, emailed me a picture of Prunus mume blooming in her Georgia garden, along with her thoughts on this beautiful tree:
The P. mume sent out a few flowers right after the New Year, but it has been in full bloom for about a week now. It blooms much like most winter plants do: the buds do not open all at once. When the inevitable frost kills off these flowers, new ones open on the next sunny day. It will go a good month in bloom.
Since the Japanese flowering apricot is hardy as far north as zone 6, it’s hard to figure out why it’s not more widely planted – people just don’t seem to know much about this amazing little tree, and nurseries don’t always carry it, instead favoring the old stand-bys like dogwood and redbud.
On my street, nearly every yard has a dogwood tree. I have one too, alongside the driveway down near the street (it came with the house). And when my dogwood succumbs to old age, I will happily replace it with Prunus mume. It’s a nice thought, that someday I could be coming home to the only house on the block with a floriferous, blooming tree in January and February. And when April rolled around, I could still enjoy the borrowed view of my neighbors’ snowy white dogwood trees. But you know, flowers just aren’t at a premium in April the way they are in February. ♣
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Hilda, I hope you have created some interest in this gem for the winter garden. I have been told by many nurserymen the reason Prunus mume is not more widely known is that because people buy their plants in spring when they are in bloom. By that time Prunus mume is just another green plant. If we shopped in Jan/Feb. they would see the WOW factor in this delightful little tree. Did I mention the fab fragrance?
Sandra Jonas