Every other flower in this guide is a stem. Blossom is a piece of a tree, and it changes the scale of a room.
Blossom branches are cut lengths of flowering fruit tree, usually cherry, plum, peach or almond, sold in bud and opened indoors. They are the only spring material that gives real height and architecture, and the only one with a season measured in weeks rather than months.
What counts as blossom?
Almost all of it is Prunus, the genus that covers cherries, plums, peaches, apricots and almonds. Florists talk about it by tree rather than by species, and the practical differences are worth knowing.
- Cherry blossom is the one everyone pictures: clustered, pale pink, densely flowered along the branch.
- Plum blossom flowers earlier, on darker wood, with the flowers sitting tight against the branch. It reads more graphic and less soft.
- Peach blossom is deeper pink and slightly heavier in the flower.
- Almond blossom is the palest and among the earliest, and the branches tend to be straighter.
What does blossom mean?
Blossom means transience, and it is one of the few flower meanings that is genuinely universal rather than invented by the Victorians.
In Japan the practice of hanami, viewing the cherry blossom, is built around the fact that it does not last. The blossom is admired precisely because it falls, and the whole tradition is an argument that a thing being brief is not a flaw in it. In China, plum blossom carries a slightly different weight: it flowers in the cold, before anything else, and stands for perseverance.
Both readings sit under the same idea. Blossom is a flower about time.
Blossom is admired precisely because it falls.
When is blossom in season in Australia?
Roughly August through October, moving with latitude and the weather. Plum and almond come first, cherry follows, and a warm snap can bring the whole thing forward by a fortnight or push it past you entirely.
This is the least predictable material in the spring bucket, which is why our spring wedding flowers guide tells couples to treat blossom as a hopeful accent rather than a fixed centrepiece. Committing a ceremony arch to blossom eight months out is how people end up disappointed.
How to force blossom branches open
Blossom is usually sold in tight bud, and how you treat it in the first hour decides what you get.
- Open the woody stem. Cut on a steep angle and split the bottom five centimetres with secateurs. A flat cut on hard wood barely drinks.
- Use deep, tepid water. Branches want depth, which is the opposite of tulips and sweet peas.
- Control the speed with temperature. A warm room opens the buds in a few days. A cool room holds them back. If you have a date in mind, this is your dial.
- Give it a heavy vase. Branches are top-heavy and will take a light vessel over with them.
- Expect mess. Petals drop. That is the flower doing what it is for.
Once open, expect one to two weeks. Our guide to keeping flowers alive longer covers the rest.
A note on cherry, and on picking
Blossom is worth buying rather than taking. Cutting branches from street trees or public gardens damages trees that are managed for everyone, and fruit-tree wood does not recover quickly from a bad cut. If you want to see it at scale rather than own it, our piece on where to see cherry blossoms in Victoria is the better answer.
How to use blossom well
Blossom is architecture. One or three branches in a heavy vessel, given room, will do more for a hallway or a corner than any bouquet, because it works at the scale of the room rather than the table.
Do not add flowers to it. The instinct to fill in around the base is the same instinct that ruins most arrangements, and blossom is at its best with nothing else competing. If you want the blossom palette in something you can send, the seasonal bouquets carry it through spring.
The blossom palette, sendable.
Osaka is named for cherry blossom season and built to the same pale, airy brief, from $139. Shop Osaka →
Blossom is the shortest season we sell and the one people miss most often. When it lands, it lands quickly.
