Okame Cherry
Prunus ‘Okame’ · an early pink flowering cherry
One of the first trees to bloom, cloaked in rosy-pink blossoms while winter still lingers, and a reliable heat-tolerant cherry for the South as well as the North. Plant it in sun with good drainage; a late frost can nip the early flowers.
- Mature size
- 25 × 25 ft
- 7.5 × 7.5 m, tall × wide
- Hardiness
- Zones 6a–9b
- USDA
- Sun
- Full sun
- Water
- Medium
- Blooms
- Mar
Okame Cherry at its mature size
A mature Okame Cherry grows to about 25 ft tall and 25 ft wide, taller than most people.
Drawn to scale beside a 5 ft 9 in person. With VeraScape, you see it at this size in your own yard.
Typical mature size, unpruned. Sources: NC State Extension, University of Arkansas Extension.
Through the year
What Okame Cherry looks like month by month in a typical zone 6–7 garden.
Dormant · Dec–Feb
Bare spreading branches.
In flower · Mar
Bare branches covered in rosy carmine-pink blossoms.
In leaf · Apr–Sep
Dense green leaves, no flowers.
Fall · Oct–Nov
Leaves turned modest bronze to orange.
Growing Okame Cherry
- Grows well in
- The Northeast, the Southeast, and the Pacific Northwest.
- Growth rate
- Medium
- Good for
- Specimen
- Leaves
- Drops its leaves in winter
- Native to
- Garden hybrid
Spacing
VeraScape spaces plants so their grown canopies just touch. For Okame Cherry, that’s about 25 ft apart, center to center.
Place a row in your own yard and VeraScape spaces them at their mature width, so you can see whether they’ll crowd the walk.
See Okame Cherry in your yard before you dig
Visualize it at its true size, alongside the rest of your design.
Other cherries
Okame Cherry
Kwanzan Cherry
Yoshino CherryAll drawn to the same scale.