Prunus ‘Shirofugen’ (Japanese Flowering Cherry)

A flowering cherry of great beauty, award-winning Prunus ‘Shirofugen’ is a small deciduous tree of vase-shaped habit with a flattened crown and gorgeous blossoms. Pink in buds, large fragrant double flowers, 2 in. across (5 cm), counting up to 25-30 petals, open white with a tinge of pink on the reverse of the outer petals and then change again to deep pink before the shedding of the petals. Blooming in late spring, the blossoms are held gracefully in pendulous long-stalked clusters of 3-7 flowers, closely packed along the branches. Emerging coppery-red, the leaves turn bronze green and orange in fall. A healthy, vigorous ornamental cherry that Western gardeners have prized for over a century and 5 times that in Japan.

‘Shirofugen’ means ‘White Fugen’ in Japanese, in reference to Saint Fugen.

• Recipient of the prestigious Award of Garden Merit of the Royal Horticultural Society
• Grows vigorously up to 30 ft. tall and wide (10 m).
• Performs best in full sun in moist, relatively fertile, well-drained soils.
• Perfect choice as single specimen plants and lawns.
• Prune in midsummer if silver leaf is a problem.
• Watch for caterpillars, leaf-mining moths, bullfinches, silver leaf, bacterial canker, and blossom wilt.
• Propagate by budding or grafting, although softwood cuttings in early summer with bottom heat can be successful.