Request: Cherry blossoms in Kugane!

[Naraku_Diabolos]

Maybe during spring? Little Ladies day festival =]

Hingashi is actually based on Japan. We only get the cherry blossoms in the 3 city-states during Little Lady's Day, and people could buy them a few years ago (now they are a Mog Station purchase) to decorate their personal housing. I'm talking about actually keeping cherry blossom trees in Kugane all year long. That and maybe flowering plum trees, but have them be a deeper pink with purple leaves (there is a tree called a Purple Leaf Plum tree, and it's an ornamental tree; there are a grove of them that are planted by the road up the street from where I live). Maybe also have weeping cherry blossom trees that take place of those weeping willows. I do believe that in Yanxia, there are those miniature plum trees that we see in bloom all the time.

[Krotoan]

Hingashi is actually based on Japan. We only get the cherry blossoms in the 3 city-states during Little Lady's Day, and people could buy them a few years ago (now they are a Mog Station purchase) to decorate their personal housing. I'm talking about actually keeping cherry blossom trees in Kugane all year long. That and maybe flowering plum trees, but have them be a deeper pink with purple leaves (there is a tree called a Purple Leaf Plum tree, and it's an ornamental tree; there are a grove of them that are planted by the road up the street from where I live). Maybe also have weeping cherry blossom trees that take place of those weeping willows. I do believe that in Yanxia, there are those miniature plum trees that we see in bloom all the time.

Probably because like snow or falling leaves it's a seasonal thing. It's weird and , for me, a little jarring to have something like that happen randomly.

I am sad the ability to do it on your own house is locked behind an actual purchase but even in japan, cherry blossoms are a once a year thing right?

I'm not against doing cool things, but it seems like an oddly world flow breaking addition to a public area.

[Naraku_Diabolos]

Probably because like snow or falling leaves it's a seasonal thing. It's weird and , for me, a little jarring to have something like that happen randomly.

I am sad the ability to do it on your own house is locked behind an actual purchase but even in japan, cherry blossoms are a once a year thing right?

I'm not against doing cool things, but it seems like an oddly world flow breaking addition to a public area.

There are in-lore reasons for the ever-blooming cherry blossom trees. Have you not read it?

An authentic cherry tree from the Far East modified through generations of grafting and crossbreeding to bloom perpetually.

http://xivdb.com/item/17044/authenti...rn+cherry+tree

Grafting IS a real thing, too. I learned that in class. I grafted two different apple trees together. You have to take two related plants, like two apples (Malus spp.) and do either a V-shaped cut (easiest to do) to the trunk of the under-stock and then make a wedge piece of the scion (upper part of your grafted tree). You wedge it in there so it connects like a puzzle piece, then you bind it together with plastic wrapping and tape it. Over the course of a few months, that fresh wood that was bound together actually seals itself to form one new plant. You can even make grafts with branches; my Lowes Home Improvement store, in different parts of the US, sells actual apple trees that have THREE different types of apples growing on one tree! You can also do that with citrus trees such as lemons, limes, grapefruits, etc. Only 2 same species of trees can cross-pollinate, such as apples and only apples, cherries and only cherries, etc. Another kicker is that edible apple trees can be pollinated by ornamental (flowering crabapple) trees, and you'll still get edible apples from that first tree, yet the seeds inside that edible apple will be genetic hybrids. AKA, new types of trees to plant!

Now with cross-breeding a cherry tree, as in the description, it's basically cross-pollination. You have cherry blossom tree "A" (say for instance a Yoshino) and then tree "B" (Okame cherry). You cross-breed it with each other by just having the trees planted next to each other. The fruits that the trees produce, their flesh will be the same flesh as a Yoshino or Okame (I've yet to actually see Okame cherry fruits, but this is just an example), but the seed itself is a genetic hybrid. You take that seed out of the cherry it produced, plant it, and when the tree matures enough to produce flowers, you may get a new color and species of a cherry blossom.

Now going into the TRUE genetic hybrid of any regular trees are Japanese maples. There are over 2,600 DIFFERENT genetic hybrids of those trees. That's all of a result of cross-pollination, grafting, and such. For every 1,000 seedlings a single tree produces, you'll get 1 new genetic hybrid. To perpetuate that new hybrid, you make branch cuttings to grow a new tree out of that branch. I'm actually doing branch cuttings right now at my house during this winter. And yes, I'm not kidding you, you can grow a tree out of a branch. I've made 2 Okame cherry trees out of branches.

/end educational rant, lol

[Krotoan]

There are in-lore reasons for the ever-blooming cherry blossom trees. Have you not read it?



http://xivdb.com/item/17044/authenti...rn+cherry+tree

nope. I don't have those. I don't think i had a house when they were implemented so they wouldn't have been something I'd be interested in.

I still don't know if I'd buy all of Kugane having those everywhere either. Once again I'm not against your idea, I agree it would be pretty, I just don't see a reason they'd implement it since it would make their seasonal event effect an everyday thing.

[Iscah]

[educational rant]

I love learning random cool stuff! Thanks!

[Kohdo]

Effects like leaves and cherry blossoms blowing, and dust being stirred up by the wind would really make the cities feel alive.

[TouchandFeel]

/end educational rant, lol

While technically possible to create a "perpetually blooming" variety of something like a cherry tree (or apple, plum, peach, etc.), it would require require the proper climate with the correct conditions to keep it in the state of the tree/plant thinking it is okay to bloom. This would likely be a very warm/temperate climate that stays fairly consistent throughout the year, since seasonal shifts would potentially disrupt what life-cycle phase (dormant, grow, fruit/flow) that the plant thinks it is in.
On top of that, I would predict that a "perpetually blooming" cherry tree would look noticeably different than what we think of when we think of a blooming cherry tree since the tree dominated by and completely covered in blooms with little to no leaves is a result of the tree going into a very concentrated flowering phase after coming out of winter dormancy. If the tree were to be perpetually blooming, it would likely have far fewer blossoms at any one time and they would be mixed in with the basic leaf and branch growth since the flowering period would be stretched over a longer time and would overlap with the growth period. It would also probably end up being a very slow growing or dwarf variety due to more energy and resources being devoted into flowering during it's growth period.

Honestly though, in a fictional video game world with magic and other such things, just go with the default justification ... "a wizard did it".

For those interested, here is a great episode of the NHK International show Begin Japanology that focuses on Sakura.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwX5AkeXeX0