The elegant wild cherry trees blanketing a steep bank down to my burn are never less than breathtaking when in flower, and I fully understand why the cherry is Japan's national flower and plays such an important part in its culture.

If you're in the market for such a tree, though, our native cherries – Prunus padus, or bird cherry, and Prunus avium, or gean – are certainly not for small gardens. And the serried ranks of tall, dull cherries that line many streets have given the tree a bad press. What a shame. That said, a few small to medium-sized ornamental cherries, ideal for small gardens, containers and even hedging, are coming on the market. Unfortunately, some remain hard to find, but the more gardeners ask for them, the more readily available they'll become.

Japanese Fuji cherries, Prunus incisa, make an excellent choice. The pale pink-white semi-double blooms of Mikinori are followed by striking orange and red autumn foliage. Like most Fujis, the variety should reach 2-2.5 metres after 10-15 years, so it is fairly containable.

Bush cherries are delightfully compact and usually need little or no pruning. Some, such as the 2m-tall Easter Bonnet, sit comfortably in a patio container for several years. Like several other cherries, this specimen is available from Binny Plants in West Lothian. Another fine cherry is P incisa Otome, with nodding white flowers and contrasting purple-red pediclel and calyx.

Several of these bush varieties lend themselves to the popular weeping style. One nursery has grafted Pendula's weeping crown on a 90cm straight stem so you'll have a mass of white flowers on its pendulous branches. Placed in rich, moist compost in a sunny corner, it's pretty showy at this time of year. An alternative is the Japanese cherry, Kiku-shidare-zakura, with double rose-pink blossom, or Frilly Frock, which produces variegated leaves in summer.

The most readily available Fuji cherry is probably P incisa Kojo-no-mai. It's an attractive beast. The light red buds are usually in pairs, opening to pale pink flowers with red centres. The dark purple fruits in autumn provide an attractive bonus.

What I like most about cherries is their versatility. Kojo-no-mai can also be trained as a hedge – not the thick, dense hawthorn type, but rather an elegant, more two-dimensional form. Use it as a dividing hedge within the garden, rather than a boundary one. When planting a cherry hedge, plant whips one metre apart during the dormant season. Tip back the leader early in the first summer; in later years, cut back new growth by one-quarter to one-third after flowering until you've got the size you want. It's worth stressing that cherries and plums should only be pruned early in the growing season, after flowering, to prevent silver leaf disease.

Some other ornamental cherries can be trained as hedges, but check before buying. One to consider is the purple leaf sand cherry, P x cistena Crimson Dwarf. Its bright reddish purple leaves keep going all summer before turning a greenish-bronze in autumn. This variety is less hardy so should only be grown in the more sheltered low-lying west.

Another option is to choose a fruit-bearing hedge, where the wonderful blossom is followed by a harvest of succulent fruits. It's probably simplest to choose self-fertile varieties, such as Lapin's Cherokee, Summer Sun or Penny. Fan train the trees, but check your dessert cherry has been grafted on a dwarfing rootstock.

Dessert cherries are grafted on rootstocks which control a tree's vigour and ultimate height, so after you've decided on a variety you need to know the rootstock. (If the staff at a garden centre can't tell you, don't buy it.) Gisela 5 is a dwarfing rootstock, producing a tree no taller than three metres – the kind you'd want for the patio or a small bed. Most cherries are sold on the more vigorous Colt rootstock, in which case be prepared for four to five metres, and significantly more if a Malling F 12/1 rootstock is used.

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