....Would be right about now, if the flowering cherry (they're actually members of the plum family) has any say about it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanami

Yeah yeah, I'm so wee-a-boo I have a sakura tree in my back yard. It was going cheap, I tell you....

[lightbox]http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a223/mappythemouse/sakura1.jpg[/lightbox] [lightbox]http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a223/mappythemouse/sakura2.jpg[/lightbox] [lightbox]http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a223/mappythemouse/sakura3.jpg[/lightbox] [lightbox]http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a223/mappythemouse/sakura4.jpg[/lightbox] [lightbox]http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a223/mappythemouse/sakura5.jpg[/lightbox]
Focus = the shite. Photography skillz = the shite.

You'll make a certain Sakura-chan fanboy acquaintance of mine very happy.

Are they easy to grow? I might have to get a cutting off you...

They want to bush out like mad early on. If you don't keep cutting back the lower branches they'll be happy to sit there like a gnarly little bush and never grow.

Especially in our climate where there isn't enough water for them. They really like water. Lots of buckets in the shower collecting water for the sakura tree with these water restrictions.

And they don't grow fast to begin with, anyway. Mine is about 6 years old and it is only slightly taller than me, so expect this to be a long-term wee-a-boo project.

They start to blossom about now and continue on until about mid-October, if you're lucky. Then they throw on about twice their weight in huge green leaves until early March, when they start to die off and they look blutig awful. That returns you to the gnarly, leafless brown and burgundy stump and branches for Winter. They're not the most attractive of plants during Winter.

Oh, they also like shaded areas. Sitting them next to larger trees makes them happy, or something, especially when the summer sun hits. I have mine between two Jacarandas and an Alder. The Jacarandas take up the blossoming bit after the cherry stops.

I didn't know you liked gardening, Mappy. we have a cherry blossom here, apparently nanna says it doesnt need much water, will have to check again later.

I'm actually a pretty bad gardener. Most of the time if the plants stay alive and grow, I'm happy. But this thing has been pretty high maintenance since I got it. Same with the jacarandas. Damn things sprout from the base all the damn time, and they're supposed to be trees.

As for the watering.... I'm doing as I was told to do by someone who has grown one before. Probably why it hasn't grown all that much. With all the water in the topsoil it hasn't sent the roots down in search for it.

I had that problem with a hakea, which actually collapsed because the weight above soil exceeded the capacity of the roots underground to hold it up. We'd had a drip watering system put around the garden, which only sees water down as far as the topsoil, therefore the hakea (being a native tree) didn't see the reason to have to send its roots down. With a bit of work, Jim came up with a pipe watering system which we buried several feet into the soil at the base of the plant (after we straightened it up as best we could and tied support posts to keep it upright). It survived and is growing quite healthily, now, albeit at a slight lean because of what happened....

Ahh... well Ill have to take a photo of my cherry blossom, its got brownish red leaves now, having bloomed earlier this month. and poor tree, leaning over! maybe too much to drink? lol kidding!

wait a sec... last time I checked, sakura flowers had 5 petals...

bchan5 wrote:wait a sec... last time I checked, sakura flowers had 5 petals...

I think Mappy's flowers have five petals, the poor focus makes it hard to tell.
So either it's Mappy's poor photography skills or he's been mistaking a tree.

They have five petals, but they have several layers of them. Five in front, five behind that and so on. I've checked. It's like a redundancy thing.... Bit hard to attract the bugs to your lovely pollen so as to fertilise other trees if the first gust of wind has wiped all your petals away.

My photography skills are the suck. I said that before.