Have you ever seen a flower that only blossoms in the winter? Plum blossom or Prunus Mume (its scientific name) adores the cold temperature and likes to release its beauty in these environments. The first time I ever saw one was from my grandmother’s vase. They are beautifully pinkish-red contrasting with the white vase and the dark brown tree branches. When you walk close enough, their light sweet fragrance would easily crawl into your nose and relax your body. I love to be around them.

 

Its Features:

Prunus Mume is native to China South-Central and Laos in woods and rocky hills. As mentioned before, the most distinctive feature of Prunus Mume is to not blossom in the spring, but in the midwinter. But how? It is because its flower buds have a staggered dormancy so that they would stay unharmed against the cold temperature while almost all the other flowers inevitably end their flowering period. The flowers come in different colors pink, white, red, and yellow. In addition, Prunus Mume is overall a very sturdy tree that can resist most insects, pests, and diseases. Despite it being largely a tree it is categorized as the “Rosacrae” family which is a medium-sized Rose family. It can grow about 15 to 20 feet and maybe the longest-lived of the flowering fruit trees. However, the plum has a low availability rate, so you have to go out to the region to find the tree. To my knowledge, there are some at North Carolina State University. If you want to plant one of them in the US, Zone 6-8 might be the best locations:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cultural Aspects:

Sharp Edge of a Sword Comes out from Grinding,

and Plum Blossom’s Fragrance Comes from the Bitter Cold

– Chu Hsi ( A Poet from Song Dynasty)

 

This line is used a lot by the future generation of writers as a way to allude to perseverance. In the 2022 Winter Olympics, President Xi Jinping quoted this line to encourage athletes to train hard to achieve good results in the upcoming Olympics.

 

Not only, in China, the plum blossoms are long beloved in Japan. In their eyes, flowers are not seen as fragile or weak, but powerful and noble. In Japan, the flower-viewing- or hanami-  is typically associated with cherry blossoms but it was plum blossoms that started this Japanese tradition. Many years ago, when China and Japan started trading, much Chinese culture became ingrained in Japan. The Chinese writing system, Confucian philosophy, and Chinese Buddhism — all of these were new concepts that became the foundations of Japanese society. Plum blossoms have become one of the ingrained cultures due to their uniqueness. The upper class would plan parties and events to behold the awakening trees. It is hard to blame them because the contrast of dark brown wood, deep pink flower buds, and white snow makes for a truly breathtaking portrait of nature.

 

Plum blossoms are also interestingly personified as a female character. In many Chinese poetry in the Tang Dynasty and Song Dynasty are usually used to compliment a woman’s elegance, beauty, and strength. One of my favorite sayings from Lu Meipo (Song Dynasty):

The snow excels the plum blossoms for its pure white;

But plum blossoms beat snow with a whiff of scent light.

Using such a description, the poet indicates the relative strengths and weaknesses that exist among people. He admonishes us to have a thorough knowledge of ourselves yet also to learn from others, allowing their strengths to compensate for our lack.