Flowering cherries all belong to the Prunus family and offer such staggering variety you’ll find one for every spot in the garden. All offer a long season of interest, with spring blossom and yellowy-orange autumn colour. Some are even at their best in winter, such as copper-barked Tibetan cherry (P. serrula) and P. x subhirtella ‘Autumnalis’, which flowers from November to February.
For spring blossom it’s hard to beat snowy white ‘Taihaku’, the great white cherry, but it needs space to show off its spectacular display. More compact alternatives include P. ‘Shirotae’, or ‘Mount Fuji’, and tiny little ‘Kojo-no-mai’, perfect for containers and a froth of blossom in spring.