🌸 Royal Burgundy Japanese Flowering Cherry

What it looks like

Why this variety

Royal Burgundy is Kwanzan’s moodier sibling: a slightly slower-growing, smaller sport of Kanzan, discovered in Oregon and released commercially in 1990, with flowers similar to Kwanzan’s double deep-pink blooms but slightly darker — and leaves that stay reddish-purple all season instead of greening up. Where Kwanzan is a two-week pink event, Royal Burgundy is a season-long colour statement: pink flowers in spring, burgundy foliage in summer, and autumn colour on top.

The purple foliage is both the selling point and the care note: dark leaves need full sun to colour well and to flower well, and the tree is a touch slower than Kwanzan, so do not expect it to race to maturity. It shares the family’s disease awareness and short-lived tendency, so the same summer-pruning, airflow, and drainage rules apply — purple leaves do not grant immunity, however regal they look.

Florida honesty: flowering cherries are zone 5–8 trees, so this is a north-Florida trial at best, never a statewide promise. They need winter chill, suffer in heat and humidity, and are famously short-lived and disease-prone even in their happy zone. In most of Florida, enjoy the blossom pictures and plant something that actually wants to live there; in the far north of the state, a trial in sun, airflow, and well-drained soil is an experiment, not a guarantee.

If you are new to choosing between cultivars, the Varieties Matter guide explains why the name after the plant matters as much as the plant itself. The species guide for Japanese Flowering Cherry covers the species as a whole; this guide is about what makes this one selection different.

How to grow

Plant in autumn or early spring, in full sun, in fertile, moist but well-drained soil — flowering cherries hate wet feet and love airflow. Dig wide, plant at the same depth as the pot, water deeply, and mulch without touching the trunk. Most cultivars are grafted, so watch for suckers from below the graft and remove them promptly, or the rootstock will quietly take over the tree you thought you bought.

Plant Royal Burgundy as a specimen where its foliage can contrast with green: against a lawn, a pale wall, or gold shrubs, the burgundy reads as a deliberate design choice rather than a dark blob. Full sun is essential — in shade the purple washes out and the flowering thins.

Water & feeding

Water deeply to establish and in dry spells; a flowering cherry in drought drops flowers early and invites disease. Feed lightly in spring — worm castings around the drip line is plenty — because heavy nitrogen grows soft, disease-prone wood. Do not feed after midsummer: late growth does not harden before winter.

Common problems

• Bacterial canker and silver leaf — prune only in summer when wounds heal fast, sterilise tools, and remove infected wood promptly.
• Aphids, caterpillars, and scale on stressed trees — encourage predators, hose off light infestations, and keep the tree vigorous rather than spraying on a schedule.
• Short lifespan and graft failure — flowering cherries are sprinters, not oaks; a 20–30-year tree that flowered gloriously is a success, not a failure.
• Poor flowering in shade or after drought — sun, water, and patience; a cherry in shade is a leafy tree with regrets.
• Foliage colour fade in shade — purple needs sun; plant it in the open, not under a canopy.

Pruning & enjoying it

Prune in summer, lightly, to keep the upright-to-rounded crown open and to remove any green reversions — a sport can occasionally throw a green branch, and removing it keeps the burgundy uniform. Enjoy it as a four-season colour tree in miniature: pink spring, burgundy summer, autumn fire, and in winter, the horizontal lenticels on its bark, which are the cherry’s quiet signature.

Saving seeds

Royal Burgundy is Kwanzan’s moodier sibling: a slightly slower-growing, smaller sport of Kanzan, discovered in Oregon and released commercially in 1990, with flowers similar to Kwanzan’s double deep-pink blooms but slightly darker — and leaves that stay reddish-purple all season instead of greening up. Where Kwanzan is a two-week pink event, Royal Burgundy is a season-long colour statement: pink flowers in spring, burgundy foliage in summer, and autumn colour on top. As a named flowering cherry it is kept true by grafting, not by seed — most cultivars are grafted, so watch for suckers from below the graft and remove them promptly, or the rootstock will quietly take over the tree you thought you bought. Plant in autumn or early spring, in full sun, in fertile, moist but well-drained soil — flowering cherries hate wet feet and love airflow. The full method is in the Propagation section of the Japanese Flowering Cherry guide.