Every spring, adrenalin runs high among homeowners when pink and white flowers open on cherry trees around Washington's Tidal Basin. Tourists flood the nation's capital to savor the springtime beauty of the trees that were propagated in Japan. Today, homeowner demand for flowering cherry trees is greater than most other deciduous trees, save American and Asian dogwoods.

If you are considering planting a flowering cherry in your landscape, we hope this "data sheet" will help you to choose the right cultivar and address how to care for it properly once it's growing in your garden.

WHERE TO PLANT Flowering cherries must have maximum sunlight. Trees should be planted where they are bathed in sun most of the time and not shaded by structures or other trees. Soil should drain well because trees can't tolerate moisture around the roots; don't plant where you find standing water after a rainstorm. Space for tree roots to grow is critical. Provide as large a soil area as possible, at least a minimum radius of 16 feet on both sides of the projected planting site. Planting on a slope rules out growing a flowering cherry.

TREES TO CONSIDER While there are dozens of flowering cherry trees in the horticulture world, the most popular are those reaching a height of some 25 feet at maturity. Small trees are an asset in the event pruning is needed later on.

While nurseries are the best source for buying a flowering cherry, you won't find every cultivar on our list. Most nurseries can only inventory a limited selection of flowering cherries, so you consider one or two options if they don't have the tree of your choice.

Here are the best flowering cherry trees growing to about 25 feet tall at maturity:

* Kwanzan Pink Flowering Cherry: One of the best double-flowered flowering cherries, showing an average of 30 petals for each blossom. Kwanzan is the hardiest of all flowering cherries. It is a vase-shaped tree growing slowly to 25 feet at maturity. April blossoms are eye-catching pink.

* Shirofugen Late Flowering Cherry: One of the best trees for general planting, the long-stalked clusters of white-to-pink are very late (May- June), long lasting, and contrast superbly with its copper-colored leaves. Matures around 25 feet tall.

* Shirotae Mt. Fugi White Flowering Cherry: Mt. Fugi is the descriptive name for this white-tinged-pink semi-double flowers which cover horizontal branches of this 20-foot cherry in early April.

* Shogetsu Flowering Cherry: Double to semi-double pale pink blossoms on graceful arching branches extend the flowering season well into spring . Tree matures around 15-foot tall.

* Snowgoose Flowering Cherry: Tree is oval-rounded, reaching heights of 20 feet at maturity. White blossoms unfold in late April. Tree exhibits some resistance to insects.

* Tai Haku Great White Flowering Cherry: Great White Cherry describes the very large single, pure white flowers that this wide-spreading tree wraps itself in spring, followed by yellow-to-orange fall color. When it matures, this tree approaches 18-foot tall and 25-foot wide.

Taoyama Flowering Cherry: Semi-double pink blossoms open in April. At maturity, tree grows to 25 feet tall.

* Akebono Flowering Cherry: A cloud of early and fragrant blossoms decorate the gentle curving branches of this tree, maturing at 25 feet.

* Amanogawa Flowering Cherry: Displays fragrant pink flowers in late April. Foliage is yellow-green. At maturity, grows to a height of about 20 feet and 4 to 5-feet wide.

* Weeping Flowering Cherry: A striking small tree (under 18-foot) whose arching branches weep to the ground with almond-scented pale pink blossoms in April.

* Yoshino Flowering Cherry: This is the tree at the Tidal Pool in downtown Washington that draws visitors every year. Maturing around 25 feet, the tree yields almond-scented flowers in April every year.

* Pendula Plena Rosea Double Pink Flowering Cherry: Nothing approaches the splendor of this tree when it blossoms around Mother's Day. The graceful pendulus branches are covered with double pale-pink flowers. This tree grows slowly and seldom reaches above 12 feet.

HOW TO PLANT A FLOWERING CHERRY. Regardless of how you may have planted trees before (or how many), please follow these explicit instructions for planting this and other trees for the foreseeable future.

You may have specific ideas about the flowering cherry you want to plant, but be prepared to accept some compromises along the way. Trees come as "container plants" or as "ball-and-burlap" (B&B) plants. Older trees usually come B&B because they were previously growing in soil at the nursery, and they transferred them to burlap in hopes of marketing them in the spring. You might question the nursery manager if you want an older cherry because he may have one which has not been dug up and moved into burlap. This is frequently the case with large nurseries.

So, you've bought your flowering cherry. When you get home, set the tree near the house so it receives morning sun, but afternoon shade. Make sure of this one way or the other. Plants (container or B&B) must be watered lightly every morning unless there was overnight rain (the sidewalk=driveway was wet in the morning). Use a sprinkling can, not a garden hose. Water must flow from the container or B&B every morning. On the day before you plant, omit watering so the rootball is moderately dry the next morning. That evening, soak the soil where you expect to plant (makes digging easier).

On the day of planting, the rootball must be accurately measured for height and width. With a container plant, bang your fist on the base of the container to dislodge the rootball intact. Set the rootball on newspaper, then use a ruler or tape measure to measure the exact height and width of the rootball. Jot the information on a sheet of paper for reference when you dig the hole.

With a B&B tree, first place it on a sheet of newspaper. Carefully remove the cord or twine holding the burlap to the trunk and let the burlap fall to the ground. This is where things get tacky. Go to the top of the rootball to see if the "flare roots" are exposed or not. Small flare roots come off the trunk and disappear into the soil surrounding the rootball. If you see the flare roots, that's perfect because you want to measure the height of the rootball to a point just below the flare roots. When you plant the B&B tree, the flare roots will be showing in the inch above the hole.

On the other hand, if you don't see the flare roots, use a plastic fork to brush the soil away from the top of the rootball. You're looking for the flare roots which are buried under the soil at the top of the rootball. Just brush the soil away so the flare roots are exposed, and no more. Now, you're to plant.

The depth of the hole for the flowering cherry must be one inch less than the height of the rootball (so the flare roots are exposed). The soil at the base of the hole must be rock-hard, almost like concrete. The width of the hole can be two or three times the width of the rootball. All the soil taken up from the hole must be saved so it can be backfilled with the tree. Place a few sheets of newspaper on the ground next to the hole to hold the soil as you dig.

Let's use an example here to illustrate how the hole must be prepared. Assume you are planting the tree from a container. You measured the rootball and found it to be six inches high and five inches wide. This is your benchmark. You now know the hole must be five inches deep and the width could be 10 to 15 inches.

Dig first with a shovel, putting all the soil on top of newspapers near the hole. Use a firm ruler to measure depth of the hole as you dig. Around a depth of three inches or so, put the shovel aside and start digging with a garden trowel. Keep using the ruler to measure depth as you dig. When you reach five inches, stop digging and start excavating on all sides of the hole. We can't emphasize this digging around the hole because the first roots growing off the rootball will establish themselves in this soft soil. You will backfill on all sides of the hole with this excavated soil.

Now, you're ready to plant your tree. Up to here, the tree has been sitting next to the hole, but now the tree is ready to be placed in the hole. We want you to take note of the roots of the rootball. Note that they wrap themselves horizontally around the soil of the rootball. Now, using a serrated kitchen knife, you want to cut through these roots encircling the rootball. With the rootball on the ground next to the hole, cut through the outer circle of roots every two inches as you work your way around the rootball. This may seem to be a useless maneuver for you, but it's critical so the cut roots immediately start growing in the soil surrounding the rootball (the soil you have dug away just minutes before). If you didn't sever the roots, it would take weeks before the roots moved into the surrounding soil. When you're through, the rootball should look like it has the "frizzies."

Now, it's back to the hole. Smooth out the soil at the base of the hole so it's level. Set the rootball of the container plant so it stands vertically. With the B&B plant, use the burlap to lift the tree and position it in the hole. Now, start backfilling with the soil taken up from the hole. Against what you have done for generations or years, do not add any organic matter as you backfill the hole. When the hole has been filled halfway, pour a quart of water over the soil (not the rootball) to settle it, then continue backfilling. When you have filled the hole to the top, slowly pour another quart of water to settle the soil and remove air pockets. No need to mulch the soil just yet because there will be more settling of the soil, but the plant will not settle beyond what it is today.

Every two or three days, in the absence of rain, water the tree with a sprinkling can for two weeks after planting, then twice-a-week thereafter. A month after planting, cover the hole with an inch or two of chunky mulch, keeping the mulch away from the trunk.