Betty Montgomery: Japanese apricot tree known for cheery pink blossoms

Shortly after Christmas, during intervals of mild weather, the Japanese apricot (Prunus mume) perfumes the air with a sweet scent of almond.  This small deciduous tree explodes with color in mid-January to February or March, depending on where you live and the variety you choose to grow. The fragrant flowers, which appear on bare stems, can be single or double and in colors of white, pink, rose or red.  When the gray days of winter, paint the landscape a bleak color, this small tree lights up the landscape. 

Coming so early in the new year, it will tolerate some frost. However, when some artic blast of cold air damage the open flowers, all is not lost. Since the flower buds of Japanese apricot have a staggered dormancy, other buds will open and more flowers appear.  The staggered dormancy ensures a long period of flowering which makes this tree even more of a reason to plant one where you can enjoy it from your warm house in the winter. 

The Japanese apricot is very popular in Japan where they have cultivated about 300 named varieties.  If you live in USDA zones 6 to 8, this small tree is easy to grow with very few pests or problems. This small tree has a rounded shape and reach between 15 and 20 feet and wide, depending on which cultivator you choose. It is not fussy about soil but does like good drainage. Fruit trees in general, do not live long. I have had our two trees for about 12 years and they still look healthy.   

As stated above, there are several hundred different cultivars of Japanese apricots but they are mainly found in Asia since it is a favorite tree there.  There are only about 3 or 4 available here and three of the ones you can find were the work of W.B. Clarke, an American hybridizer, who cultivated and named them.  The most popular selection, ‘Peggy Clarke,' boasts double deep-pink blossoms with rose-pink petals crowned with a bright red calyx, which are the leaf-like structures that enclose the flower.  ‘Rosemary Clarke’, which is a very early double-flowering bloomer, is white with red calyx.  ‘W.B. Clarke’ produces double, pink flowers on a weeping tree.    

If you plant one of these delightful trees, and are in zone 6, the Brooklyn Botanical Garden says to plant it in a more protected location if you have the choice. Farther south, you do not have to be as careful about location. If you are one that likes to prune, be careful about pruning.  I have never pruned mine and it is a nice shape. However, I know some people love to prune, one of my sons is always wanting to prune. You need to know and remember that the flowers bloom on the previous year’s wood.  The buds are set during the growing season of the year before it blooms. Like most of the macrophylla hydrangeas, if you prune wrong, you will be taking off the flower buds and your tree will have fewer flowers. You should prune just after flowering, cutting half of the long shoots back by one-half to one-third. This will encourage more shoots to form, producing more flowers. 

This ornamental fruit tree, does produce fruit but not like the prunus americana.  Because many of the flowers of ornamental Japanese apricot (prunus mume) are damaged by cold weather, few fruits form. When fruit does form, most Americans say it is inedible. However, in Asia this bitter and sour fruit is eaten.  It is pickled, made in to preserves and jams, or soaked in alcohol and made into apricot brandy.  In my garden, I have never seen fruits form. 

This tree is an ideal size for a small garden because it does not get very big. It can be planted as an accent tree or planted in mass in a larger garden. It can also be pruned into a shrub and kept small but be careful about when and how you prune. 

Japanese apricots were little known in this country until Dr. J.C. Raulston of the North Carolina State Arboretum started promoting it.  Dr. Raulston made it a personal crusade to promote this tree. Even though Dr. Raulston had a sudden, untimely death, he left money in his will to be used to plant Japanese apricots in the Raleigh, NC area.   He wrote; "I have often lectured and written about this most favorite plant of mine, the flowering apricot, which blooms in January with white, pink, and red highly fragrant flowers. The Japanese consider the flowering apricot their finest flowering tree and have hundreds of cultivars." 

I have seen this magnificent tree blooming in the Brooklyn Botanical Garden and I love to ride through the campus of Wofford College to see their mass plantings and the dramatic show it makes.  This fast-growing, charming, deciduous tree with its cheery pink blossoms, reminds us that spring is not far away as it brightens up the landscape.   

Betty Montgomery is a master gardener and author of “Hydrangeas: How To Grow, Cultivate & Enjoy,” and “A Four-Season Southern Garden.” She can be reached at bmontgomery40@gmail.com.