Pink Flowering Bird Cherry Trees

Prunus padus Colorata: Bareroot Pink Bird Cherry Trees in Standard Sizes

The Purple Leaf Bird Cherry is a pink flowering variety of the native Bird Cherry tree. It is a striking specimen, with excellent contrasts and changes of colour across the year.
The leaf buds and new stems begin as a deep purple, bronzing into a coppery tone as the leaves unfurl, becoming deep green in summer and then red in Autumn. The flowers appear in May, while the leaves are still fresh, on long flowering strands called racemes. Each delicate flower has pale pink petals around a rose-hip coloured centre. These face out in every direction from their central stalk, appearing all the more vivid because of the rich foliage. The small, bitter black fruit are popular with birds.
With its narrow, upright canopy it is suitable for most gardens, and reaches a height of about 10 metres.

Browse our variety of cherry blossom trees or our full range of garden trees.

Delivery season: Cherry blossom trees are delivered bareroot during late autumn and winter, approximately November-March inclusive.
Choosing a size: Small trees are cheaper, easier to handle and more forgiving of less than ideal aftercare, so they are best for a big planting project. If instant impact is your priority, or if you are only buying a few plants for use in a place where it is convenient to water them well in their first year, then you may as well use bigger ones. All our bareroot trees are measured by their height in centimetres above the ground (the roots aren't measured).

Features:

• Height: To 10m
• Soil: Any decently well drained, even compacted
• Use: Small gardens, specimen, urban
• Colour: Pink flowers in April-May, red Autumn foliage
• RHS Award of Garden Merit
• Bareroot delivery only: November-March

Growing Colorata Bird Cherry Trees

This is a tough, hardy tree that will grow in most well drained sites, and tolerates compacted urban soils and air pollution. It really needs close full sun to flower well; given that it is such an ornamental tree, it is not worth planting in partial shade in our opinion.

Did You Know?

This unusual pink bird cherry was discovered by chance in Sweden in the 1950's and all existing trees are clones of the original, as it doesn't come true from seed. The RHS loves this tree and has given it 3 awards since 1974, two for its cuttings on display and the Award of Garden Merit for being easy to grow and good-looking.

Standard trees are measured by their girth in centimetres 1 metre above ground level: their trunk's waist measurement. Unlike sapling trees and hedge plants, standards aren't measured by their height, which will vary quite a bit both between and within species.
So, a 6/8cm standard tree has a trunk with a circumference of 6-8cm and an 8/10 standard has a trunk 8-10cm around. This measurement makes no difference to the tree's final height.
On average, standard trees are 2-3.5 metres tall when they arrive, but we cannot tell you precisely how tall your trees will be before we deliver them.

Notes on planting Prunus padus Colorata trees:
Bird Cherry is a very hardy plant that thrives on poor, dry soils. It needs full sun to flower well and it may struggle on shallow chalk, although it is fine for most alkaline sites.
It will not grow well in the shade or on damp sites. It is not suitable for coastal areas and we don't recommend it as a windbreak hedge for exposed areas because the wind will blast it out of shape.

Prepare your site before planting:
It is good to dig over the site where you plant a tree several months in advance. Kill the weeds first: for tough weeds like nettles, brambles and ground elder, you will usually need a weed-killer to get rid of them. When you dig the soil over, remove stones and other rubbish and mix in well rotted compost or manure down to the depth of about 2 spades.

Watch our video on how to plant a tree for full instructions.
Remember to water establishing trees during dry weather for at least a year after planting.

Tree Planting accessories:
Prepare your site for planting by killing the weeds and grass with Neudorff WeedFree Plus.
You can buy a tree planting pack with a wooden stake & rubber tie to support the tree and a mulch mat with pegs to protect the soil around the base of your tree from weeds and drying out.
We suggest that you use mycorrhizal "friendly fungi" on the roots of all newly planted large trees: if your soil quality is poor, we strongly recommend it.
You can also improve your soil with bonemeal organic fertiliser and Growmore.