A favorite of many gardens, Prunus 'Kiku-Shidare-Zakura' is a small deciduous tree with gracefully arching branches, smothered with charming, fully double, rich pink flowers in mid to late spring. The abundant blossoms, 1.5 in. across (3.5 cm), are packed with up to 125 elliptic petals (!), giving them the look of a powder puff. Held in clusters or 3-5 blossoms along the bare pendulous branches, they create a terrific floral display. Bronze as they emerge, the serrate leaves mature to bright green in summer, forming a dense canopy casting shade below. As the leaves fall, they reveal the shiny, peeling coppery bark of the trunk, adding winter interest to the landscape. A miniature chrysanthemum-flowered variety of cherry tree that is splendid as a lawn specimen.

With some of the deepest pink flowers of the weeping cherries, Prunus pendula 'Pendula Plena Rosea' is a very pretty deciduous tree forming a broad crown of long, gracefully weeping branches. Deep, dark pink in buds, the small, double flowers open almost flat in paler pink shades. Blooming in great abundance in mid-spring before the leaves emerge, they boast a red calyx and 10-20 delicately twisted petals. Held in drooping clusters of 3-4 blooms, their floral display lasts a week or so longer than most other flowering cherries. As the flowers wane, ovate, bronze-green leaves emerge to create a fresh summer canopy.

Regarded as one of the finest weeping cherries, Prunus pendula 'Pendula Rosea' is a small deciduous tree forming a broad crown of long, gracefully arching pendulous branches. Opening from deep rosy-pink buds, small, single clear pink flowers appear in late winter to early spring before the leaves emerge. Held in drooping clusters of 2-5 blooms, they give a charming see-through effect. They are followed by small pea-sized black fruits, which are inedible. As the flowers wane, the ovate, dark green leaves emerge and create a fresh summer canopy before turning brilliant shades of orange and red in fall.

Prunus x yedoensis 'Shidare-Yoshino' (Yoshino Cherry) is a deciduous tree with a dramatic and graceful weeping habit. Blooming in early spring, its pendulous bare branches get smothered with generous clusters of brilliant white blossoms. As the flowers wane, the oval-shaped, dark green leaves emerge and create a fresh summer canopy. In fall, they turn burnished shades of bronze and gold before shedding to the ground. 'Shidare-yoshino' is a cultivar of Yoshino cherries, a hybrid dating back to the late 1800s and thought to be the result of hybridizing Prunus speciosa with the weeping form of Prunus subhirtella v. pendula. This fine ornamental tree grows fairly quickly to become a respectable specimen.