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cherries occurs in the flowering season, so that the fruits appear long after classification is completed. Furthermore, the fruits do not stay on the tree very long, as birds are quick to discover them. Therefore, not much importance is given to the fruits in the descriptions of the cultivars. One may find ovate, little cherries that are almost black (as in 'Taguiarashi'), purplish-black, small, and round cherries (as in 'Jo-nioi'), and even twin-fruits in 'Imose', which bears two fruits at the end of a stalk. Time of Flowering Time of flowering is another key in identifying cherry cultivars. One must, however, have experience and insight in the data on flowering, since changes in weather can result in earlier or later flowering by several weeks. What is constant, though, is the successive order in which the botanic forms and cultivars put forth their blossoms. Spring as a season can be short and condensed or can be spread more evenly with gradual rising temperatures for many weeks or months. Therefore one needs to have an idea of the characteristics of spring in the region where one is observing cherries. Japan's short and explosive spring generally has only three weeks between the average early and the average late cherry blossoms of the garden cultivars. In the moderate climate of Britain or the Netherlands, spring can last six weeks or more. The length of the cherry season may also differ from year to year. After a severe winter that lasts longer than usual, early flowering cherries such as 'Shirotae' can be two weeks later than in other years. Late-flowering cherries, such as 'Fugenzo', catch up and flower on time even though spring has set in later than usual. On the whole the cherry season is two weeks shorter than normal in this case. What does not change is the relative order in which the cultivars burst into bloom. After winter, when 'Fudan-zakura' blooms, the season begins with Prunus pendula f. ascendens, followed by P. serrulata var. speciosa and P.Ă—yedoensis, which both bloom before P. serrulata var. spontanea. Then the first garden cherries come into bloom with such cultivars as 'Bendono', 'Ariake', 'Tagui-arashi', 'Washi-no-o', and 'Tai-haku'. The latter, 'Tai-haku', is a good marker on the scale of flowering times as it will always and everywhere flower earlier than 'Fukurokuju' or 'Hokusai', which are representative of the later-flowering cultivars. This later group of cherries includes P. serrulata var. pubescens and the garden forms 'Edo-zakura', 'Hakusan-hata-zakura',