End of cherry blossom is the beginning of vibrant colorful flower blooming! If you are travelling in spring to early summer, there are many parks and gardens where you can see a variety of colorful flowers. Shibazakura is one of the popular kinds that continues the shades of pink. The moss phloxes are not part of the cherry tree family. They are small, five-petaled flowers that grow to 15cm (around 6 inches). They are in white, pink, rose, mauve and blue color. At Shibazakura Hill in Hitsujiyama Park of Chichibu City, north of Tokyo, there are some 400,000 moss phloxes blooming in late spring, early summer. The Japanese called it “Shiba-zakura” because of the resemblance of the pink color to cherry trees and they usually bloom around the same time, I think.