Plant of the Month

Pink Snow Showers™ Cherry
Prunus subhirtella 'Pisnshzam'

Location: Grid V4 across from the kiosk

Pink Snow Showers™ is a new cultivar of Weeping Flowering Cherry. It was selected for large, bright pink, single flowers, extra dark green foliage, and perhaps most importantly, it is resistant to a fungus disease, called shot hole borer, which can really be a problem on some cherries, especially in cool, wet springs.

Pink Snow Showers™ Weeping Cherry 4-22-13

We planted the two trees in the Arboretum in 2008. Like many of the weeping trees, these were 'top grafted' which means that small shoots of the desired cultivar are grafted onto a taller trunk of a desirable rootstock. This is usually done at either 3' tall or 5' tall, which puts the bulk of the head of the tree at eye level for most people.

'Vermont Sun' Forsythia, Forsythia mandshurica 'Vermont Sun' 3-20-13

I have been very impressed with how quickly these trees have grown and developed a graceful crown. The flowers are larger and showier than the other weeping cherries in the collection, and so far, they have not shown any signs of some of the disease problems that can affect other cherries.

Monthly Projects

April weather has been typically fickle in Moscow, with quite a bit of rain, some warm sunny days and unfortunately some nights with record low temperatures. Those frosty nights were hard on some early flowering things, especially the deciduous magnolias. The weather has cooperated enough that I think we are further ahead on new plantings than usual this time of year. We have also been able to get to some pruning projects that have been neglected over the years. We are planning to do some major rejuvenation pruning on several of the Forsythia cultivars when they finish blooming.

Forsythia with older branches without flowers 4-10-13

Forsythia form most of their flower buds on 'new' wood, that is branches that are one or two years old. Once a branch is more than two years old, it stops producing very many flower buds. Some people maintain their Forsythia by mowing them off to the ground every year right after they flower. This always seemed a little drastic to me, but unfortunately we just haven't gotten to the pruning of the Forsythia the past few years, and now they need some drastic cutting back.

Upcoming Events

Arboretum Associates Annual Plant Sale
Saturday, June 1, 2013 9:00 am - 12:00 pm
Ice Rink, Latah County Fairgrounds

Plant Sale List (PDF)

'Majeste' Lungwort Pulmonaria 'Majeste'