Monday, May 2, 2011

Snowfountain Weeping Cherry















Pictured here is one of the trademark plants located here on our property along the river. It is a 30-35 year old weeping cherry tree, a Snowfountain Cherry or Prunus x 'Snofozam'. I have admired this tree with many customers and staff members alike. It stands strongly out by the roadside, where it receives ample doses of snow and ice, as well as salt and sand tossed out by town snowplow trucks, throughout the winter months.

This amazing tree has about a 5" caliper trunk and a nice tight habit. It maxed out at about 10' tall and about 6-7' wide. It's large umbrella shape is amazing. With beautiful horizontal striations on the bark and showers of white blooms all the way down the branches, it is a traffic stopper!!

We have the tree underplanted with tulips and various perennials. To me, a weeping cherry is a specimen tree which looks great in Japanese style gardens, as a focal point of a planting bed, or even on the corner of a house. It conveys a sense of safety and harmony due to its umbrella shape and embracing branches. I have actually crawled underneath and sat under its branches at the end of a long day, if only just for a moment.

We have younger specimens of Snowfountain Cherries for sale here at the nursery. In general, Ornamental Cherries need full sun and well-drained soil. Watch for Japanese Beetle damage into June. We carry products to prevent this damage or serve as a curative if needed.

Don't forget to prune suckers off the trunk and give your 'Snowfountain' Cherry a haircut every few years, when branches reach the ground!

1 comment:

wcutler said...

Thanks for posting this. I hope you'll keep it posted, as I want to link to it from the UBC Botanical Garden forums. 'Snofozam' was introduced in 1985, so this was one of the original ones. Mostly, only photos of young trees are available; nice to see what a mature tree of this cultivar looks like.