Pink Snow Showers Cherry

Pink Snow Showers Cherry (Prunus 'Pink Snow Showers') is a weeping flowering cherry grafted onto a clear standard, growing to about 5m tall and 4m wide with branches that sweep all the way to the lawn. In spring the whole canopy turns soft pink for a couple of unforgettable weeks. For gardens with cold winters it is a true event tree.

Why you'll love it

• A curtain of spring blossom. Pink flowers crowd the pendulous branches from top to ground, so the display reads as a solid veil rather than scattered sprays.
• Graceful out of season too. The weeping green fountain looks composed all summer, then the foliage colours before dropping in autumn.
• Built for cold gardens. Frost hardy and wind tolerant, it takes the winters that rule out most spring flowering feature trees.
• Sized for small gardens. At about 5m by 4m, with its height set by the graft, it fits a courtyard or front lawn without ever outgrowing the promise.
• Low maintenance. Once established it asks for almost nothing beyond admiration.

Where it works best

Feature planting. Give it a position where the shape can be seen whole: the middle of a lawn, beside a gate, or framed by a window you sit near in spring.

Small gardens. Because the head is grafted at a set height, footprint and height are predictable, which makes placing it in a tight space unusually safe.

Driveways and avenues. A matched pair at an entrance, or a repeated run along a cold climate driveway, turns one fortnight a year into an occasion.

Growing Pink Snow Showers Cherry in Australia

Position and climate. Full sun. This cherry needs a genuinely cold winter to flower well, so it belongs in cool temperate, warm temperate and chilly Mediterranean gardens. In frost free coastal gardens from the subtropics north, flowering is sparse and unreliable, and it is honestly the wrong tree.

Soil. Well drained, always. Flowering cherries resent wet feet, so improve the bed with compost, plant slightly proud on clay, and mulch without touching the trunk.

Water and feed. Deep soak weekly through the first two summers, and keep water steady in spring while the tree is in leaf and flower. A complete slow release fertiliser in early spring is ample.

Pruning. Very little. After flowering, shorten anything that spoils the weeping outline, and remove any shoots that rise from the standard below the graft as soon as they appear.

What to expect when it arrives

Pink Snow Showers is sold as advanced stock in 45L and 500mm sizes, each with the standard trunk and weeping head already formed, so the tree you unwrap has its architecture from day one. It is deciduous: winter deliveries arrive bare branched and budded, which is exactly as it should be.

Trees are delivered Australia wide, with delivery from $29.95. Advanced and large stock is freighted at cost. Expect leaf and blossom to build with the first spring, and every tree is covered by our 30 day healthy plant guarantee.

Plant care guides and related reading

• Browse other flowering trees for company across the seasons.
• Compare specimen choices in the feature tree collection.
• Time the planting with our guide to the best time to plant a tree in Australia.

Common questions

Will it flower in a warm coastal garden?

Not reliably. It needs real winter chill to set blossom, so in the subtropics and tropics the display is thin. South of there, the colder your winter, the better the show.

Will it grow taller than it arrives?

Not by much. The weeping head is grafted at a set height, so the tree thickens and weeps wider over the years rather than climbing, reaching about 5m tall and 4m across at maturity.

How should I prune it?

Lightly, straight after flowering. Trim to keep the skirt clear of the lawn if you like, and remove any upright shoots from below the graft, which belong to the rootstock rather than the weeping variety.

Does it do anything outside spring?

Yes. The weeping form is a sculptural presence in leaf, and the foliage colours in autumn before dropping for winter.