April 27, 2006 © Janet Davis

Each spring, in temperate regions around the world, there is a lovely tradition that requires nothing more of the participant than the willingness to stop for a moment -- or an entire afternoon -- to contemplate one of nature’s most beautiful but ephemeral occurrences. It is the spectacular flowering of the Japanese cherry blossoms.

Unlike edible cherries, flowering cherry trees are not grown for their fruit. Says one observer: “The Japanese cherry does not have to produce a market crop because it is a born aristocrat and its single mission is to be beautiful. But it does render a very useful service to the people.”

In Japan, hanami or “flower-watching” has been a national pastime for more than twelve centuries. Depending on whether the trees are located in Hokkaido in the cold north, Tokyo and Kyoto in Japan’s middle, or Kyushu at the warm southern tip, the flowering season stretches from early March through May, with much revelry under branches laden with clouds of white or pink blossoms. Japanese cherry trees are called sakura so cherry-watching there is properly known as sakura hanami.

Cherry blossoms are a rite of spring in many cities of North America too. Next year will mark the 95^th National Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington, D.C., an event that brings 700,000 visitors to the U.S. Capitol to the see thousands of trees in bloom around the Tidal Basin and Potomac Park. The trees were gifts from Japan, with half presented by the Mayor of Tokyo in 1912 and the rest given to Lady Bird Johnson in 1965.

In New York, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden holds its 25^th Sakura Matsuri (matsuri means “festival”) this weekend; San Francisco’s was April 15-23; and Vancouver had its first annual Cherry Blossom Festival this spring.

When Torontonians are able to enjoy Japanese cherry blossoms, it’s a sign that the previous winter was a mild one, for even the most cold-tolerant species are at the northern limit of their bud-hardiness here. In the previous two winters, temperatures dipped so low that flower buds froze, resulting in scant or no bloom on trees. In Ontario, that difference is what makes the mild Niagara Peninsula our cherry and peach fruit tree belt, in contrast to the chilly apple-growing regions near Collingwood.

Not surprisingly, after this year’s mild winter, Toronto gardens are now bursting with blossoms. Travel around town this week and next and you can enjoy your own sakura hanami. The earliest to bloom is the Somei-Yoshino cherry (Prunus x yedoensis), much beloved by the Japanese for the way the fluffy white flowers emerge on bare tree branches, announcing that winter has ended. High Park has an allée of venerable Yoshinos that were given to Toronto by Japan more than 45 years ago; when they bloom along the hillside walkway to Grenadier Pond in the next week, it’s a magical sight. And through the 5-year old Sakura Project, the Japanese Consulate-General has now donated more cherry trees to High Park, the CNE, McMaster University and the U of T’s main and Scarborough campuses.

Elsewhere, if you hurry, you can still see the beautiful, pink-flowered ‘Accolade’ cherries in the old section of Mount Pleasant Cemetery, which also has several spectacular weeping cherries, Prunus x subhirtella ‘Pendula’ that will bloom a little later. Burlington’s Royal Botanical Gardens has a grove of old Japanese cherry trees near the Rock Garden parking lot.

The last and hardiest cherry to bloom is Prunus serrulata ‘Kwanzan’ (aka ‘Kanzan’, ‘Sekiyama’) with bright, reddish-pink double flowers displayed amidst bronze-green new foliage in May.

Adapted from a column that appeared in the National Post

Back to Latest from Janet