Prunus 'Okame'

I just sent for a starter of this hybrid. It is a cross of P. incisa x campanulata. I tried Armeniaca mume and 'Hally Jollivette,' without success. I gather Okame is popular and recommended for bonsai, but I couldn't find any pictures of bonsai on the Internet. Are there any articles available that would be useful for growing it in the Northeast?
Iris

bonsaisr wrote:I just sent for a starter of this hybrid. It is a cross of P. incisa x campanulata. I tried Armeniaca mume and 'Hally Jollivette,' without success. I gather Okame is popular and recommended for bonsai, but I couldn't find any pictures of bonsai on the Internet. Are there any articles available that would be useful for growing it in the Northeast?
Iris

Iris,

I don't know of any specific bonsai related articles for P. x okame but I know you'll like it. It's not as cold hardy as some of the other cherries because of it's "campanulata" heritage so some winter protection of containerized plants is recommended. My garden tree is in full flower right now so it's one of the early flowering trees. You'll find that it flowers at a very young age, even as 1 and 2 year old cuttings. Hopefully yours will have been grown by cutting rather than grafted so you won't have to deal with the graft union. They are quite easy to take from mature summer growth. As always, they get the typical bugs and fungus' of prunus but most often shot hole fungus and gauls.

Randy

Well, I haven't found much about this variety as bonsai, but Google will give you a truckload about it as a garden tree. I can hardly wait for mine.
Iris

bonsaisr wrote:Well, I haven't found much about this variety as bonsai, but Google will give you a truckload about it as a garden tree. I can hardly wait for mine.
Iris

Iris,

I'm going to start some from cuttings from my garden tree this summer and like you, begin a bonsai experiemnt with it. We'll have to keep in touch and compare notes about it.

Randy

See thread on Okame cuttings. It is hardy in Chicago.
Iris

Mine arrived, in leaf. Apparently it blooms very early. Talk about a stick in a pot. You don't want to know. I cut off the top to a foot high, and will stick it in the ground for the year.
Here is some background. It is a cross of what is now Cerasus campanulata x Prunus incisa. The botanical name is Prunus xincam. The hybrid genus name will be changed eventually, but now it is still Prunus.
The cross was bred by an Englishman, Captain Collingwood Ingram, and introduced in 1947. I think Arnold Arboretum actually introduced 'Okame,' which is named after a Japanese character. Okame, also known as Uzume or Otafuku is the name for the female half of a traditional Japanese Kyogen theatre pair.
Iris