Fall flowers: jugatsuzakura

Jugatsuzakura are a variety of cherry blossoms. Jugatsuzakura quite literally means October cherry blossoms. And as you might have guessed from the name, they are so named because they normally bloom in October. Yes, there are cherry blossoms that bloom in October! Furthermore, they bloom for several weeks, not just two weeks like the vast majority of spring time cherry blossoms. Moreover, they actually bloom again in the spring! However, even this variety only blooms for about two weeks in spring.

Jugatsuzakura mainly bloom in October, but they can start to bloom as early as September, as evidenced in this post - the featured photo was taken yesterday, September 24th 2024. This particular tree was in full bloom as were another four, but the remaining 20 odd trees were only partially blooming. The tricky thing about autumn cherry blossoms is they don't have as fixed a bloom pattern as the cherry blossoms in spring. However, by and large, you can see some blossoms on an October cherry blossom right through to early December normally.  

Because they don't all bloom at once and go in and out of blossoming, the October cherry blossoms (and another variety that are very similar: fuyuzakura or winter cherry blossoms) are not as revered as the varieties that only bloom in spring. Moreover, it can be quite disappointing to go out of your way to see some October cherry blossoms, only to find a handful of blossoms open on the tree. But if you are lucky, sometimes you get to see the full tree blooming, as I did yesterday by sheer luck!

Do you like Jugatsuzakura? Have you seen any yet this year?