Akebono Flowering Cherry

Walking beneath a grove of flowering cherries in full bloom feels like walking beneath clouds. And the most widely planted flowering cherry in the coastal Pacific Northwest is ‘Akebono’. It has masses of large, semi-double, pink flowers that fade slightly as they age. It blooms in April, develops wide-spreading branches and has fall color of golden yellow with orange highlights. Its parents are P. subhirtella and P. speciosa. If you come across the original cross (simply called Prunus x yedoensis or Tokyo cherry), it is equally garden worthy, with single, whiter flowers that appear a little earlier than those of ‘Akebono’. ‘Akebono’ is a seedling of P. x yedoensis selected and named at the W. B. Clark Nursery in San Jose, California, about 1920. Ideally, cherry trees should get at least 6 hours of sunlight each day. Cherry trees do best in deep, well-draining soil that has a pH of 6.0-7.0. Space sweet cherries 35 to 40 feet apart; dwarfs, 5 to 10 feet apart. Space tart cherries 20 to 25 feet apart; dwarfs, 8 to 10 feet apart.