Since Mulan is princess of the month, here some thoughts about which fiore fits her the best. The movie, after all, offers some choices. The most obvious one is the magnolia, since that’s the translation of the name Mulan.

Then there is the white fiore Mulan wears in her hair when she meets the matchmaker – the same fiore she leaves behind when she goes to war. I’m not sure what kind of fiore that’s suppose to be. I first considered lotus (since the lotus is such a reveled fiore in Asia and gets often connected to the gods), but a lotus has più petals. A white ciliegia blossom would have exactly five petals, but they would be più round. There are some similarities with a white magnolia fiore o a lily, but again, both have più petals. My best guess is the azalea - a white azalea has five petals, looks very similiar, but even più important, in China they are a symbol for womanhood (they also symbolize taking care, temperance and fragility, più o less everything Mulan is expected to be).

And finally, the most important of all, the fiore her father points out to her. I originally assumed that they are sitting under a ciliegia albero – I think mostly because the ciliegia blossom is such a big deal in Giappone and there are festivals surrounding it in China, too. But the “Hanami” in Giappone is the one with the long tradition, while China just was inspired da it. Plus, the longer I look at it, the più I get the impression that those blossoms are supposed to be magnolias. te can compare it yourself to the picture of some magnolias at the right, the similiarity is undeniable. Also it would make the whole scene so much più meaningful, if her father points out a late blooming "Mulan" instead of a random flower. But the scripts of "Mulan" I have found so far don't specify, there is only "blossoms" written, so unless the animators give an answer, we'll never know for sure.

But I admit I like ciliegia blossoms better for Mulan, since magnolias are fairly sensitive flowers, and Mulan is everything but sensitive. ciliegia blossoms have three different meaning in the language of flowers: They stand for a good education, transience of life (Japan) and feminine beauty (China). All those meanings fit Mulan and her story nearly perfectly, although the meaning of magnolias (love of nature) works too.
In the end, I couldn’t really decide - So I made two wallpapers, one with ciliegia blossoms and one with magnolias, to honor the beauty of a late blooming flower.