Category: Everyday Life

Talking about flowers

It was election day on Sunday, for the prefectural governor and for members of the municipal assembly and city council.
The petals of the someiyoshino (the typical cherry flower in Japan) have been raining down.

We wondered if the ukon flowers might be in full bloom and visited the Minami Park parking lot (ten minutes away from our house on foot).
It was about seventy to eighty per cent in bloom. We thought that ukon was the great light green cherry flower, but actually the gyoikô, which was in bloom next to the ukon, has a stronger green colour. It still had many buds, but the flowers were droopy looking. (Or so I felt: it doesn’t mean they are actually drooping, I think. But I am not a flower expert.)

Around here there are many cherry trees belonging to the wild cherry family with double-layered flowers. Those buds are wrinkly and not young-looking before they bloom. It doesn’t have the same liveliness as the someiyoshino, whose buds become big and chubby before blooming cheerfully. To tell the truth, the double-layered cherry blossoms look spent before they bloom. However, they open up to many cheery flowers that look like pompoms.

The amanogawa (Milky Way) cherry near the view tower, which usually blooms with a cascade of white flowers, has been cut back to one or two branches. Because it got sick? We felt disappointed.

After that, we visited the paeony garden at Maizuru Castle. (It sounds very close, but it’s not so close: about thirty minutes on foot.)
Hmm. Not time yet. Now we know that there are many cherry trees there, too. The best time has passed this year, but that garden could also become a good flower viewing spot for us.

Only one kind of red paeony, called kaoh, was in bloom.
And pretty Japanese maple flowers.

At our house, a few flowers on the Naniwa rose are in bloom. The flowers have a fragrance like apples. We believed it had no scent. How strange. The jasmine buds have become red. When they all bloom at once, the fragrance will be very strong…

– YS, 10 April 2007

10 April 2007