These are the Burrard Station 'Akebono' trees now. I've told friends who return to Toronto next week that they will see them in bloom on March 4, the day before they leave. If that comes true, it will have been only two weeks from first blossom to open. They certainly look ready to pop, and the weather report is for a few days of sun and 10-13 degree temperatures. This location is usually the second to bloom in the city, but a few blocks down Hastings street, at Broughton, the trees are at pretty much the same stage. This branch is mostly open, but the rest of the tree and the other trees on this block are not open yet.
Burrard Station trees are so close to open. Two more days? This weekend for sure. Someone told me today they're open, but people weren't really looking at them, so it's not quite time to tell photographers that it's worth their while to make the trip.
Burrard Station 'Akebono' viewing is OPEN! 17 days from first blossom to in bloom. I think the woman in red was a visitor, didn't speak English. We took each other's photos. She was very excited. These trees two blocks away at Grosvenor Plaza, west of Burrard on Alberni really should be in the West End blog, but I think they've been reported here (by me) since the beginning, so I'll just carry on. It feels like downtown there. Second photo is a bit of a selfie. Anyway, it's time to go see these. The rest of the downtown and West End 'Akebono' trees have several more days to go before opening. I've added a walk for VCBF starting at Burrard Station March 14 at 2pm. I'm expecting them all to be open by then. You're all welcome to come, no registration is required. See the Tree Talks and Walks page for the other talks and walks, and keep checking it, as some of the dates have been changed, might still be changed.
Yaletown House @ Helmcken Park These trees are back in bloom - first so far in Yaletown but many other trees are budding to blossom very soon!
Re: West End / Stanley Park The young Snofozam at the foot of Hornby just before the steps down to the ferry that accommodates bicycles to Granville Island is in full bloom. You can see it's had a severe pruning since last year.
Yaletown Blossoms Lots of Akebono blossoms now on Yaletown seawall and it will be particularly nice once the rain eases off. David Lam Park and Seabreeze Walk (Schmitt's!) are looking good too. There is also a nice display by Lupo's Restaurant to the VPL.
Who knew it wasn't going to rain for my 'Akebono' walk today! And after I told everyone there were only 'Akebono' out and nothing else, we found that 'Shirotae' had popped open (none photographed, by me anyway). All the ones we saw have been reported before. These photos are 'Akebono' at a (private) park area between Pender and Hastings. Except for the sign that says something about private property, you can walk through from mid-block Pender to Jervis or Broughton at Hastings.
Here's a photo taken by Peter Paleczny on yesterday's walk starting at Burrard Station, where this was taken. I like how this collection of 'Akebono' trees has the same shape as an individual 'Akebono' tree.
There are three blooming Shirotae trees on Drake Street just by the lane between Granville and Howe. The trees are planted in elevated platforms so it was pretty hard to get a close-up shot of the flowers with my phone camera.
The 100 trees that were planted in 2010 (see post #122) were blooming nicely on March 24. It looks like the trees are ringing around David Lam Park, and more Akebonos are being planted. This park will be amazing when the trees grow bigger. On the east side of the park, one tree is blooming out way faster than the others. The fourth last photo is a close up of the bloomed-out tree, and the third last photo is one that is still in full bloom. At the north corner of Drake and Hamilton (on the north side of Hamilton), there is an Akebono growing in a planter outside the building. I only took a picture of the planter and not the surrounding, but now looking at google map street view, it looks the tree outside the building is a cherry that will bloom later in April. And a side note not related to cherry trees, I love to walk by the pathway between David Lam Park and Dorothy Lam Children's Centre in the fall, the air is filled with fresh sweet smell from the Katsura trees planted there.
The young tree at the northeast corner of Drake and Hamilton is a 'Shiro-fugen'. It was starting to bloom on April 4. Since I was in the area, I also took a couple pictures of the 'Kanzan' trees that line Beatty Walk from Expo Boulevard to Nelson Street.
Here is a photo of a single 'Kanzan' at 853 Richards by someone who entered "Cherry blossom in the city" in the posting author field on the map submission.
Burrard Station lame photo time - these were the only flowers open yesterday at Burrard Station. Last year, the first flowers were posted February 18 and the trees were in bloom on March 7, which was 17 days later. This year, it's four days later; if the relative timing is the same, the trees would be in bloom March 11. I can't imagine they would be open earlier than 17 days. Even a week or so later, in bloom on March 17, would give us some flowers still on the trees for the festival opening here on March 24. There is not a single flower open at Grosvenor Square.
SarahO posted in the West End thread, where they really belong, photos of the Grosvenor Square trees entirely open today! That's nine days after my comment that there were no flowers at all. Burrard Station is not entirely open, but is photo-worthy already. So much for March 11 and not sooner than 17 days after first flower. It will be 12 days.
It's three days after Willard's posting, and those Burrard Station 'Akebono' trees are looking excellent! It's just under 10C degrees, so they might last a bit longer than usual, if this cool drippy weather keeps up. I don't know about their hanging on till the festival opening on March 24, though. They'll look great for my Downtown/West End pre-season walk this Saturday, March 12. There will be a lot of trees in bloom for that, including 'Accolade', 'Shirotae', and possibly 'Yae-beni-shidare', 'Rancho', 'Umineko', and 'Takasago'. The last four all have very puffy buds, and two of them have some open flowers.
Many thanks to Laura Blumenthal for helping herd 65 or so people around the Downtown and West End yesterday for the first VCBF Tree Talk & Walk. The trees were perfect - all 'Akebono' locations were in peak bloom, though Burrard Station trees were dropping petals; 'Accolade' in the West End still look perfect; two 'Shirotae' locations were just about in full bloom (but others barely open); 'Rancho' were open and visible from a distance; there were flowers on 'Yae-beni-shidare' and still a few on 'Beni-shidare'. Here are photos from Laura taken at the private property public park amenity on Georgia at Denman.
These 'Shirotae' have all appeared here before. The old BC Hydro Electra building, now a condominium, at Nelson and Burrard. A block down at Hornby, in a very unused plaza where a new Honolulu Coffee shop is opening soon. That made me wistful, though finally I have stopped wishing I were still in Waikiki. And the trees in front of Joey Burrard restaurant, that caused such a stir when they were being pruned ain 2012. They're not looking too bad, actually quite a bit nicer than the ones across the street. I wouldn't complain if they were to remove the almost dead one completely. They are also quite a bit further along in blooming (just past peak) than the ones across the street, which you can see in the background in the second photo.
Lots of action at The Westin Bayshore. Shirotaes blooming everywhere. Shogetsus along the east wall of the Bayshore, north of the lobby entrance are in bud. And a good turnout for Joseph Lin's walk.
Shirofugens are blooming at the Westin. . The two young trees are located on the east wall of the hotel, between Starbucks and the Seawall Restaurant, and are further ahead in their bloom than the three older ones at the entrance to the hotel. All the blossom photos are taken from the two young trees. There are several Shirotae trees along the east wall of the hotel as well, but not shown in this posting.
Back to the Westin. On the east wall of the hotel, at the north end of the building are two young trees. They are located between the Starbucks and the Seawall Bar and Grill (closest to the Seawall Bar and Grill). On March 24 they were just starting to bud, as seen in the last photograph of the previous posting. I had some trouble identifying them at that time. Eight days later, I am seeing a lot of elephant trunks on the blossoms of those two trees - so I have labelled them Shirofugen for now. Stay tuned...this could change.
Also at the Westin ...three large trees at the entrance to the driveway. I am calling them Shogetsu now, but I'm not certain. They are not as far along as the two young ones in the previous post. The blossoms are smaller in diameter, too.
Well, 'Shiro-fugen' got the name, but a lot of trees have phylloid pistils, which is what the elephant trunks are. Actually, most trees in bloom now have them. 'Shogetsu' definitely has them, and these trees are 'Shogetsu'. Note the frilly petal tips. And the emerging leaves green enough that it's easy to miss them among the 'Shirotae'. 'Shiro-fugen' emerging leaves are bronze, except one location downtown where they are under glass. Just goes to show that you can't rely on metaphor to identify trees.
I think my last statements about them were 'Shogetsu', in this thread: Identification: - Shirofugen or Shogetsu?. In the next posting, I said But then in posting #19 the next year, the early colour was definitiely 'Shogetsu'. I think I have to conclude the 'Shogetsu' occasionally also does the enlarged phylloid routine in June. This photo in posting #10 in that thread definitely shows the flatter 'Shogetsu' flowers, with frillier edges than 'Shiro-fugen', rosier coloured buds than the tawny 'Shiro-fugen' buds. The not-green leaf colour is what's confusing, and I think it's because they were not healthy. Willard shows very green leaves in her photo from yesterday.