Until it first bloomed here in 1917 this charming, small flowering cherry, from northern China, was thought to be the common form of Prunus pseudocerasus.
This plant differs from the white-flowering P. pseudocerasus, in its pink blossom. Recognising this distinction the Garden’s Curator, Richard Lynch, sought to identify it, and in 1928 it was subsequently named P. cantabrigiensis. Today it is treated as a a cultivar of P. pseudocerasus, and is referred to as P. pseudocerasus ‘Cantabrigiensis’. It forms a small tree to 8 m in height and will produce flower in February.