Prunus serrula Amber Scots - Tibetan Cherry

Prunus x serrula Amber Scots or Tibetan Cherry is a charming small tree, decorative throughout the year. It belongs to a group of flowering cherry trees that are equally appreciated for their spring flowers and for their bark, sublime in winter. This variety, selected at the Bois Marquis Garden in Isère (South East France), displays a shiny, amber to cinnamon-red bark, with coppery, warm and rich hues, appearing even more remarkable under the golden winter sky. In spring, it is covered with a blanket of small white blooms, opening at the same time as the leaves unfurl. In autumn, its foliage to turn golden. Give this small tree a prime location to showcase its beauty, particularly close to a window where it can be admired from the warmth and comfort of the home.

Amber Scots ® ('Minscots') is unlike any other Tibetan cherry. The hybridisation of Prunus serrula with Prunus serrulata, a close Chinese relative with dazzling spring flowering, gave birth in 2012, in France, to this small tree with an upright but flexible habit, graced with both beautiful flowers and sumptuous bark. All these plants belong to the rose family.

Prunus serrula Amber Scots has a naturally upright habit. It can reach a height of 10 m and a spread of 7 m (23ft). Its growth is moderately fast. It is remarkable particularly for its glossy, brilliant, cinnamon-red bark, peeling off in large flakes. Its deciduous foliage emerges in April, at the same time as the flowers. The petioled, slightly pendulous leaves, with prominent veins, ovate in shape, light green when they first emerge, turn dark green in summer before becoming golden yellow in October. In April, with the first warm days of spring, a multitude of delicate flowers arise, formed of 5 white petals, surrounding golden and upright stamens. The flowering period is followed by the formation of small oval-shaped fruits, 6 mm (1in) long, first red in colour and then black with red reflections. Although they resemble cherries, they are not edible.

Magnificent in every season, Prunus serrula Amber Scots displays its major asset in winter: its beautiful bark, which blends more subtly in the garden during the rest of the year. While it puts on a show in winter and spring, it is an elegant companion to other plants and enhances successive flowerings. It is often planted in the background of shrubby or perennial beds, but is also ideal as a standalone specimen, where its beautiful amber-coloured bark can stand out and be admired. It can also be planted overlooking a large pathway, with its base adorned by ornamental brambles (Rubus calycinoides 'California' or 'Betty Ashburner') and Nepeta, in the company of other spring-flowering shrubs like ornamental crabapple trees (Malus 'Evereste', 'Van Eseltine'), Chinese almond (Prunus triloba), flowering peaches, deciduous magnolias; this dazzling spectacle lasts for at least a month!