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bronze-green young foliage. It makes a vase-shaped tree, but needs to be pruned a little when young to encourage it to ramify. It blooms about a week earlier than 'Gyoiko' and at about the same time as 'Kanzan' and 'Mikuruma-gaeshi'. In autumn 'Ukon' gives its encore with a purplish-brown or purplish-red autumn foliage. Among the old garden cherries, it has proved to be one of the hardiest for climatic and soil conditions. 'Ukon' certainly needs to be remembered whenever one considers planting a flowering cherry. Prunus 'Ukon' Less current synonym: Prunus serrulata f. grandiflora Description: Tree broad and vase-shaped, to 8 m high and 15 m wide. Young foliage green with a little bronze. Leaves unfolding in the flowering season. Serration single, occasionally double, with a few small glands on teeth at the base of the leaf. Stipules medium to deeply bifurcated, 1.52.0 cm long. Corymbose inflorescence, with four to five flowers. Peduncles 2.54.0(6.0) cm long. Pedicels 25 cm long. Flower in bud greenyellow, becoming green-yellow to cream (RHS 145-C) when completely opened. Flower 5.05.5 cm in diameter, fluffy. Petals nine to fifteen, orbicular, slightly emarginate at the top, 2025 Ă— 1620 mm. There is one pistil,
Figure 179 'Ukon' has reddish bracts and pedicels. Photo by Arie Peterse, 6 May 1985, Wageningen Botanic Gardens of the Agricultural University, Netherlands.