Hanami or “flower viewing” is the Japanese traditional custom of enjoying the transient beauty of flowers — mainly flowering cherry trees that they call “sakura.” It’s a custom I have always admired and have made time to experience the sublime flowering of springtime trees that bloom before they leaf out or are “foliated” in flowers and color. It’s that time of year again in Greater Kansas City and I invite everyone to join in this experience.

These are flowers of the ‘Reliable’ almond which is actually a peach-almond hybrid (Prunus x amygdalo-persica) blooming beside the arbor in the Heartland Harvest Gardens’ vineyard. It does produce an edible nut (peach pits are NOT edible) and it, along with the cultivar ‘Hall’s Hardy’ grace both sides of the arbor and are coming into full bloom this week.

Peaches (‘Saturn’ above) are related to flowering cherries and are coming into spectacular bloom all across the Heartland Harvest Garden. The above image is from the Missouri Star Orchard. I invite visitors to Powell Gardens NOW to partake in peach blossom hanami in the Heartland Harvest Garden!

This is the heirloom “Indian” peach ‘Grandpa Gourley’ which is now in dazzling bloom on the north side of the entrance to the Heartland Harvest Garden. It’s hard for a photograph to do the experience justice.

Here’s the heirloom “Indian” peach ‘Wilbur Kephart’ at the entrance to the Heartland Harvest Garden — looking towards the conifer garden and the Visitor Center.

This is the peach tree at the end of the tapestry of thyme with the learning shed as backdrop.

The Peach Court is on the verge of being simply dazzling — this picture taken before the sun came out on Tuesday (April 7, 2015) and the peaches are not yet in full bloom.  I did set a spell on the bench to take in the splendor.  The trees were abuzz with honeybees and native bees.

Here’s a panorama of the Peach Court budding, don’t miss it in full bloom later this week and into the weekend.  You can buy a peach at a grocery store (better yet a locally grown one at a market!) and buy a peach tree at a nursery but you cannot buy a peach orchard in bloom — it’s an experience that is ephemeral and should celebrated each springtime. No frost is predicted for their bloom time this year and the pollinators were out in full force yesterday doing their job so that we may be blessed with delicious peaches this summer.