Prunus 'Cheals Weeping'
1st May 2010
Cheal's Weeping Cherry is one of the most extravagant pink fluffy cherries with all the rosy froth dripping down the
pendulous branches. It arrived here by accident and will have a few years before the wet climate wraps it in canker
and mould and it expires.
I am being brave about it.
Just for the record I should note that it was overgrown by a Eucalyptus, hemmed in by some Field Maples, and finally removed in 2015.
I had always assumed that this was a synonym for Prunus 'Kiku Shidare Zakura' but Trees and Shrubs online says:
"A weeping tree with steeply pendulous branches. Leaves lanceolate. Flowers pink, very double, 1 to 1 1/4 in. wide. Late April. A.M. 1915.
This cherry is often wrongly known by the Japanese name ‘Kiku Shidare Zakura’ (Weeping Chysanthemum Cherry), a later name which properly belongs to another cherry with similar flowers,
but with branches which ascend from the trunk before arching downwards."
In the citation for the Award of Merit in 1915 (as Prunus Chealii pendula it says:
"Prunus (Cerasus) Chealii pendula (votes, unanimous), from
Messrs. Cheal, Crawley. A charming weeping tree with long slender branches bearing numerous panicles of four to ten rose-pink double
flowers, about one inch in diameter."
International Dendrology Society, Trees and Shrubs Online, https://www.treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/prunus/prunus-serrulata/ (accessed 28.12.2023).
JRHS, Vol.41 (1915), (Extracts from the proceedings) p.lxii.