Overview
A stunning, medium sized, double flowering cherry with attractive autumnal foliage.
Description
The Plena is a beautiful cultivar of the native Wild cherry offering a profusion of double white flowers that hang in dense clusters throughout the spring. This is a very popular cultivar which has dominated our street scenes.
The leaves are simple, elliptical and toothed. They remain green for most of the growing season and turn a stunning orange red in the autumn. The bark of the Wild cherry is particularly eye-catching. It is a grey-brown turning silvery in maturity with the typical horizontal patterning created by the large lenticels (pores in bark for the purpose of gas exchange). The cultivar Plena is sterile and as such bears no fruit.
This tree is wide spreading and can reach 10-15m in height at maturity. When planted as a street tree it is often subject to severe and unsympathetic pruning in order to achieve the crown height required for traffic and pedestrian clearance however, in the correct setting this tree requires little or no maintenance and makes a fabulous specimen in maturity.
Planting Position
The Plena will tolerate all soil types but prefers a neutral or alkaline pH. As with many trees it prefers moist, free draining soil and does not cope well with waterlogging. Given its ultimate spread in maturity, this is not a tree for a small garden or site with spatial constraints; however, in the right setting it is a stunning tree if left to its own devices.
Attributes
Cherry trees offer many benefits to wildlife and are particularly known for their attractive flowers. Although the Plena does not bear fruit, it still has wildlife value and offers stunning flowers, foliage, bark and form.
Bareroot options are available here
