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| Photo Credit: Lane Greer |
| Prunus mume brings a landscape to life with its astonishing display of rosy blossoms. |
Winter in the Northwest: drippy, dreary and dim – and those are the positive aspects. In the negative column: It lasts way too long.
With all the gray, the unexpected sight of flowers blooming outdoors during this season of relentless rain is enough to make a gardener go weak in the knees. If the feeling sounds familiar, then Japanese flowering apricot (Prunus mume) is the best small garden tree you’ve never heard of – unless you’re from Japan, China or Korea. (They’re a little ahead of us on the appreciation of this tree – hundreds to thousands of years ahead.) What’s so breathtakingly fabulous about the Japanese flowering apricot? It bravely sends out its white, pink or red blossoms on bare limbs in the middle of winter – just when the beauty-starved soul needs such a vision the most. In China (where P. mume is called the mei), the tree is one of the celebrated Three Friends of Winter often seen in traditional tea gardens (the other Friends are pine and bamboo). Portland’s Classical Chinese Garden has three varieties of the tree, which symbolizes moral purity in difficult circumstances. In Japan (where the tree’s called ume or plum), the arrival of the delicate blossoms inspires multigenerational pilgrimages to view the event, sometimes complete with a hibachi for warmth. The trees’ floral display creates an awe-inspiring contrast with the snow. And the sweet scent of the flowers adds another vivid and sensual dimension to the unexpected wintry experience, as described in a poem in the 100-year-old book, The Flowers and Gardens of Japan: “How shall I find my ume tree?
The moon and the snow are as white as she.
By the fragrance blown on the evening air
Shalt thou find her there.”
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