A New Spray Chrysanthemum Cultivar, “Cherry Blossom” with Resistant to White Rust, Single Flower Type and Bright Pink Petals for Cut Flower

　A new spray chrysanthemum cultivar, ‘Cherry Blossom’ was released by National Horticultural Research Institute (NHRI), Rural Development Administration (RDA), Korea in 2007. A cross was made in 2002 between ‘Relance’, a spray cultivar with red petals and resistant to white rust and ‘Yeonja’, a spray cultivar with pink petals. Trials were conducted from 2005 to 2007 for the evaluation and selection of this cultivar, including shading culture in summer and retarding culture in autumn. The natural flowering time of “Cherry Blossom” is late October, but year-round flowering is possible by shading and lighting treatment. This cultivar is single type flowers with dark pink petals and green flower center and resistant to white rust. It is very stable color of petals when the variety is cultivated under high temperature conditions in summer season. The diameter of flower is 55.0 mm. The number of flowers per stem is 10.5 and the number of petals per flower is 24.0. The days to flowering under the short day treatment is about 45 in spring season.