Culture
Best grown in moist, fertile, well-drained loams in full sun to part shade. Best flowering in full sun. Avoid dry soils.
‘Pendula Rosea’ is often top grafted at the 5-6’ level to an understock. Grafted plants may produce non-weeping suckers that should be promptly removed.
Noteworthy Characteristics
Prunus pendula is an ornamental weeping cherry tree that is native to Japan. The white or pink flowers bloom in 2 to 5-flowered umbels in late winter to early spring before the leaves emerge. Flowers are followed by rounded pea-sized fruits (to 1/3” diameter) that are sometimes sparse. Fruits eventually mature to black, but are basically inedible. Fruits may not appear in some years. Elliptic to ovate, doubly serrate, green leaves (to 4” long) turn red or yellow in fall.
Genus name from Latin means plum or cherry tree.
Specific epithet means pendulous or hanging down.
'Pendula Rosea’ is a cultivar that typically grows 15-25’ tall with a pronounced weeping form and light pink to rose-pink flowers. Nomenclature on this tree is a bit confusing. Many weeping cherries including the within cultivar may still be incorrectly sold as cultivars of Prunus x subhirtella.
Problems
Ornamental cherry is generally considered to have good disease resistance. Like all cherries, it is susceptible to a large number of insect and disease problems. Potential diseases include cankers, black knot, leaf spot, die back, leaf curl, powdery mildew, root rot and fireblight. Potential insects include aphids, scale, borers, leafhoppers, caterpillars, tent caterpillars and Japanese beetles. Spider mites may also be troublesome.
Uses
Weeping specimen for the landscape.