New almond cultivar 'Charm' is suitable for early spring flower viewing

The ornamental almond 'Charm' is an ornamental cultivar with bright flower colors and multiple petals, discovered and selected from seedlings of Uzbek almond. It belongs to the genus Prunus in the subfamily Prunoideae of the Rosaceae family. 'Charm' has white or pink flowers, emerald green leaves, and a graceful tree form, with an ornamental effect similar to that of peach and ornamental peach. However, in landscaping practice, peach and ornamental peach are seriously affected by aphids, scale insects, and sooty mold, which greatly reduces their ornamental effect; 'Charm' precisely has characteristics such as resistance to scale insects, resistance to aphids, resistance to sooty mold, and tolerance to poor soil, so it can replace peach and ornamental peach in relatively weak environments such as forest parks and road greening in planning and design, enriching the structure of early spring flowering tree species in China. Growth characteristics 'Charm' has purple-red flowers, with a flower diameter of about 5.28 cm; 5 to 12 petals, multiple petals, petal length about 2.22 cm, petal width about 2.30 cm; 49 to 58 stamens, purple; 1 pistil, milky white, stigma emerald green; 'Charm' has spreading flowering branches, dense flowers, strong tree vigor, dense crown, and extremely easy flower formation, mainly with long flowering branches and vigorous-type flowering branches. The flowering period varies in different years. Generally, flower buds begin to swell from February 19 to March 21, enter the initial flowering stage from February 28 to March 21, enter the full flowering stage from March 7 to 26, and flowers fall from March 27 to April 10, with the flowering period lasting as long as 21 to 26 days. Leaf buds begin to germinate from March 22 to 28, and the young leaves are tender green, complementing the flowers and creating a very beautiful scene, with yellow-green leaves like weeping willow, and defoliation begins from November 12 to 24. A 5-year-old tree is over 250 cm tall, with a crown spread of up to 370 cm x 380 cm, and a trunk diameter of over 9 cm. 'Charm' rarely sets fruit, and most fruits drop within 2 to 4 weeks after flowering. Saplings can form flower buds and bloom in the same year of planting, and in the second year, after winter pruning, the branches can form long strings of flowering branches, with an excellent ornamental effect. 'Charm' has extremely strong tolerance to poor soil; after planting and survival, it can go without watering or fertilizing all year round, and the tree remains vigorous; 'Charm' is extremely resistant to gummosis. In Luoyang, Henan, 5-year-old 'Charm' has smooth bark and clean branches, with no gummosis symptoms appearing, and even after pruning, the cut and saw wounds show no gummosis; 'Charm' is also extremely resistant to aphids. In the same trial area, peach and apricot trees were severely infested by aphids, but 'Charm' and other almond cultivars were basically unaffected; 'Charm' is also extremely resistant to scale insects. In the same trial area, both peach and apricot trees had scale insect infestations, but 'Charm' and other almond cultivars rarely did. It can be said that 'Charm' is an extremely excellent landscaping tree species and a valuable germplasm resource for insect resistance in almond. Cultivation techniques 'Charm' is planted mainly for ornamental purposes and soil and water conservation. The planting areas are ditch edges, steep slopes, and the outer edges of terraced fields, with a density of 200 cm x 300 cm. When planting, dig a 0.83 cm planting hole, backfill topsoil, add rapeseed cake, cover with soil, and irrigate. Select 1-year-old high-quality strong seedlings for planting. When planting on terrace ridges, use ground-covering plants as understory vegetation to conserve soil and water. When afforesting ditch edges and steep slopes, care should be taken not to disturb the original vegetation, dig planting holes for planting, and cover the planting holes with lawn grass. In terms of fertilizer and water management, because 'Charm' only blooms and does not fruit, and is particularly tolerant to poor soil, no special fertilizer and water management is needed; it can be managed the same as general landscaping seedlings. However, 'Charm' is very sensitive to nitrogen fertilizer, and nitrogen supply should be applied as urea broadcast before bud break, with a fertilization rate of 0.5 kg per plant. 'Charm' is a small tree, and the main flowering parts are on 1-year-old branches. Its growth characteristics are moderate sprouting ability and strong branching ability, so after flowering, 1-year-old branches should be moderately short-pruned to promote new branches. If short-pruned in winter, a large number of 1-year-old branches would be removed, affecting the ornamental effect. The main pests and diseases of 'Charm' are two insect pests: small green leafhoppers and red spider mites. Spraying the whole tree and surrounding environment once with lime sulfur in winter can prevent them.