Sakura Blooms in Indonesia and Where to Find it?

This is not a click bait, sakura does bloom in Indonesia. I recently knew about this, and it’s actually very near from my childhood place. It is in Kebon Raya Cibodas, Puncak, West Java. It is around 3 – 4 hours from Jakarta by car, if there’s no traffic. Puncak is usually a weekend getaway destination for people who lives in Jakarta. Credit to Pak Sole (or Din’s Buitenzorg, based on his Facebook) for taking my picture above and took me around Cibodas Botanical Garden. It was a pleasure knowing you and your dedication to this beautiful haven.

Kebun Raya Cibodas (Cibodas Botanical Garden)

The first Sakura in Indonesia was planted in May 1971. The sakura trees in Cibodas Botanical Garden blooms twice a year. First bloom in February – March, the second between July – August due to Indonesia’s climate that has two seasons only. The sakura trees in Cibodas Botanical Garden are able to survive because it almost has the same altitude with their original habitat.

The sakura in Indonesia, specifically in Cibodas Botanical Garden really depends on the weather. Because of the climate change and unpredictable weather, it’s been several years since the sakura in Cibodas fully bloom to their potential. The flowers and petals are smaller than the ones in Japan, and much fragile so the rain can make the sakura fall down before they bloom completely. I think they also have different type of Sakura, like from Himalaya or something…

Apart from sakura, Cibodas Botanical Garden also planted a lot of exotic plants from allover the world. One of the plants that catches my attention is cactus. They brought it from Mexico and most of the cactus here are 20+ years old, especially the big ones.

Other places in Indonesia

These other places I about to mentioned does have sakura, it’s just that I haven’t see it in real life so I don’t have the picture. You can google it yourself though. When I was in Cibodas Botanical Garden, one of the workers there mentioned about Kebun Raya Bali (Bali Botanical Garden) and apparently they also have sakura. Just like in Cibodas, they bloom twice a year, during spring and autumn time.

Another exotic place that have sakura is Waingapu, Sumba. Waingapu is located in East Sumba and this places has been soaring in social media about its ‘sakura’. I don’t think it’s the type of cherry or plum tree, but it’s called bunga konjil. They are almost similar, have white and pink-ish colour, but biologically, they are not from the same family tree with sakura. If sakura in Japan (or most four-season country) blooms in March-April, this one blooms in November-December.

To be honest with you, if every white-pinkish-purple-coloured flower is called ‘sakura’ in Indonesia, then I definitely have sakura just in front of my house. Sakura in Japan signifies the arrival of spring time, a brand new start, and endurance from the long cold winter. But in Indonesia, probably it signifies “I have cool picture/feed”, “I found a cool content to share”, or “this colour looks pretty oh my gosh”. There’s nothing wrong with it, everybody wants a cool feed or content to share. I just wish we can cultivate it, not just taking picture and abandon the trees. We can learn from how Japanese or Korean or other countries who appreciate and take care of nature. In the end, nature give them back with their beauty.

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