Early blooming Cherry Trees
Did you know that there are over 100 cherry tree varieties in Japan? Some of them are wild, growing natively in the Japanese forests, but the cherry trees one can find in all the parks, gardens and cities around here are usually cultivated varieties.
While the peak of the cherry blossom season in Tokyo is around early April, when the most common varieties are in full bloom, there are also some other species of cherry blooming as early as the beginning of February, or as late as the beginning of May. One variety (the Jugatsuzakura) is even blooming in Autumn, from October until January!
One of the early blooming cherry trees is the Kawazu-Zakura. It is mainly known in Kawazu, where it was literally found by a Mr. Katsumi Iida, who took the first seedling to his garden in 1955. Everyone was quite surprised when it started to bloom in early February 1966. And they where surprised again when it kept blooming for a whole month. Most common cherry trees loose there blossoms within a week or two. Nowadays, they hold the Kawazu-Zakura Festival every year in Kawazu-cho town.
But outside of Kawazu-cho the Kawazu Cherry is relatively rare. In Tokyo there are a few of these early blooming trees to be found in Yoyogi Park.
The light pink blossoms attract not only photographers, but also the cute, but fast little Mejiro, also known as Japanese White-eye.
