can't answer that question specifically, but small cherry seedlings on their own roots are quite fast growing.

I planted two Yoshino cherry rooted cuttings, both only between 1 to 2 feet tall, practically little skinny twigs, and 3 years later they are now 8 feet tall.

It can depend on your climate though.

They flowered just a little last Spring, but not this Spring, I'm assuming because at such a young age their blossoming can be off and on every other year. Whether they are grafted trees will also likely affect age of flowering, with grafted trees beginning earlier.

I'm somewhat of a "cherry expert", so to answer your question, I would guess optimally you could expect to wait between 4-6 years, beginning from seed until the time you had a decent sized tree that profusely blossoms.

Tiny blush-colored flowers are the norm for Prunus pendula Maxim. (P. x subhirtella 'Pendula'). So if you want more floral impact you should try seeds from one of its named horticultural selections ('Pendula Plena Rosea' etc.). Of course what characters are produced by open pollinated seedlings will be a crap shoot, so that you might have to grow a quantity of seedlings to flowering in order to get what you are looking for. And the named weeping cultivars do not have the graceful habit of the parent species (P. pendula Maxim.) - in addition to whatever variation in flowering might be seen in your seedlings there will be the matter of what kind of growth habits may appear.

Thank you both. Based on your answers then I'm guessing it is not a good idea to grow these cherries and wait for them to bloom for the first time as they might be 20 ft behemoths by then and it'll be too late to do anything with it. I wanted something reliably pink.

This is where I was debating on prunus sargentii as well but I am hesitating to be honest because I heard this tree casts dense shade and this tree will get even wider than the prunus pendula. Does anyone know about prunus sargentii and is it actually true it casts dense shade? Like a Norway maple? How big are we talking for a 50 year old specimen? I need some sun for my pond which will have lotuses in it and they will be in the same yard but cannot afford acres of property.

There is always the option of growing a regular sweet cherry from seed, and then grafting the flowering cherry onto that. Flowering cherries sold in nurseries are grafted onto P. avium (sweet cherry) all the time to control tree size, and this also of course will have the effect of making the tree begin flowering sooner in its lifetime.

It depends on your grafting skills.

Probably a lot easier though to just buy 'Kwanzan' flowering cherry at a nursery. You might talk to your local nursery, they might be able to special order it for you from their supplier.

In New Jersey, due to the Summer humidity & heat, I'm not sure cherry trees will the longest lifespan though. You might find yourself having to cut down the tree and replant again in 15 years, when it succumbs to disease or pests. But that should still be acceptable since cherries are fast growing trees.

Just about any kind of Japanese cherry will be flowering long before it is 20' tall. Seed raised or otherwise.

I haven't grown any prunus from seed but I have grown a number of sorbus (s.aucuparia, cashmeriana, hupehensis, vilmorinii ...and all grow to be graceful flowering treelets within 5-6 years...(although the berries are the main delight for me).

Sprigs in the front of the frame look to be those of Prunus mume.

That's what the caption said, and I don't know any better. So it's really a plum or apricot?

It's hard to tell from the blossoms in that picture, but I'm guessing by the size of that tree, it's much more likely to be a cherry. Asian flowering apricot doesn't get as big, in its old age.

If anyone's wondering, the great age of some of the trees in Japan has to do with an optimal climate, and very much the fact that the trees were not grafted onto rootstock. Japan also has special experts to maintain these trees, check for disease and pests, and remove any dead wood, to make sure these very old cherry trees keep surviving.

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It's hard to tell from the blossoms in that picture, but I'm guessing by the size of that tree, it's much more likely to be a cherry. Asian flowering apricot doesn't get as big, in its old age.

According to Jay the caption says the subject is Prunus mume. Which is what the sprigs in the foreground look like. And not the flowers or stems of a cherry.

There is nothing in the background to show how big the tree actually is. Otherwise a P. mume 'Dione' the Los Angeles arboretum acquired in 1959 was 28 1/2 ft. tall with a trunk 3 ft. 5 in. around and an average crown spread of 27 1/2 ft. by 1993.

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This is how it appeared.