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In focus: Prunus 'Taihaku' Sarah Raven on a tree that glows from the beginning of April, as if lit from inside

AT the west end of King's College Chapel in Cambridge, where my father was a don, tucked in between the chapel and the wrought-iron gates leading to the rest of Cambridge, stands the most beautiful flowering tree.

It is a Prunus 'Taihaku', an ancient Japanese tree, sometimes called the great white cherry. It had become extinct in Japan, but has been revived from a single specimen found in a Sussex garden. I've always known it by its botanical name with all its exotic and, to me, magical associations. 'Tai-Haku' means big, white flowers.

Although it stands in the shadow of the chapel, this tree glows from the beginning of April, as if lit from inside. Its huge, pure white, straight-edged flowers, usually about 2in across, are at least double the size of the average cherry blossom but, incredibly, there is no vulgarity about such magnitude.

There is not a hint of pink or yellow on the petalsand the near-blueness of the white, together with the lack of either a crinkled edge or any double flowers, gives a chastity to the blossom and saves it from being too over-powering.

It sets these flowers against a perfect background: they emerge at exactly the same time as the bronze, ragged-edged leaves. Later in the year, the leaves will turn green, but this first flush of purity against metallic leaves is the tree's glory moment.

It is a cultivar, although it has none of the fussy over-elaboration to which cultivars are so often prone. The Prunus 'Taihaku' is the sort of tree that might have been found in Eden - nature performing miracles of beauty without any sign of how it is doing it. It's a magical combination of richness and purity.

There are other flowering trees that manage this later in the year. Think of davidia, the handkerchief tree, with its extraordinary, pure white flowers that resemble miniature linen napkins, scattered here and there over its branches.

Or hoheria, which has pretty, apple-green leaves and generous, round, virginal-white flowers similar to our prunus in size and shape. And there is the eucryphia, spectacular in August heat, clad with white, crimson-centred flowers.

But each of these trees has a trickiness to them that the prunus does not. They all need acid soils, and davidia and eucryphia can take 30 years to flower. You can grow the prunus on any soil and it will flower in a few years.

So where to put one? It sits perfectly surrounded by grass. It is fine in a lawn but even better in long grass. Or clothe the roots with snowdrops to flower as the buds fatten in the early spring.

Plant it at a shady end of the garden which needs some drama. That is where I've planted mine, filling in a bare and boring place near the north and eastern corner of a native hedge. Underneath, I've planted the purest-white orientalis hybrid hellebores. There are clumps of pure white bleeding heart, Dicentra spectabilis 'Alba' and arching wands of Solomon's seal.

What this achieves is an extraordinary gradation from the scatter of white fallen petals, through the delicate sprung forms of the planting around the tree and on upwards to the blotched canopy of blossoms above you. It's like living in a heavenly version of those shake 'n' snow, glass, blizzard bubbles we had as children.

Growing tips

Prunus 'Taihaku' has received the RHS Award of Garden Merit. It is a vigorous deciduous tree that grows to 20ft, and has an open, spreading shape - wider than it is tall - to 30ft, so it needs plenty of room.

The leaves are mid-green, 8in long, with the typical prunus shield-shape and a finely serrated edge. The leaves are bronzy when young, colouring yellow and orange in the autumn. It bears no fruit.

Cherries like deep, well-drained soil in a sunny position, with shelter from the wind. They will not do well in water-logged soil. Don't plant too close to paving, or anything the tree might lift. Cherries are shallow-rooting trees and will cause havoc with foundations and paths if planted too close. Suckers may form at the union with the grafted plant. These are clearly visible about 6in above the soil level. All suckers need to be removed.

Picking

If your Prunus 'Taihaku' has reached a decent size, you will want to pick a few branches to bring in to the house. Arrange them on their own, or mixed with boughs of P. avium, the smaller-flowered wild cherry. Sear the stem ends in boiling water to increase the surface area for water uptake and to avoid getting a mushy end that harbours bacteria and blocks the stem.

-- Anonymous, March 30, 2001

Answers

Brooklyn Botanical Garden has a nice closeup of the blossoms--

Prunus serrulata 'Taihaku'. (Photo by Wybe Kuitert, Kyoto Botanic Garden, Japan.)

-- Anonymous, March 31, 2001