Early Spring in the Botanical Garden - the Wharton Cherry Grove 2016 (and 2017)

Discussion in 'Talk about UBC Botanical Garden' started by wcutler, Mar 17, 2016.

  1. wcutler

    wcutler Paragon of Plants Forums Moderator VCBF Cherry Scout 10 Years

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    Who let @Douglas Justice go off to Vietnam during cherry blossom season? At least he wrote his "Early Spring in the Botanical Garden" March blog article, which you can read at Early Spring in the Botanical Garden | UBC Botanical Garden. Here are the cultivars in bloom that Douglas mentions in the blog. Well, we can only do 10 photos in a posting now, so this will be a few postings. These cherries first appeared in this forum (and in the garden) last year in Ornamental cherries at UBCBG, which began:
    Prunus subhirtella 'Whitcomb': this might be the only location in the city where there are still good-looking flowers on this cultivar, as it's the first to bloom, and our early mid-season cultivars are out now. There are three of these trees. Flowers open dark pink but they fade to almost white, at which point it's hard to recognize them for this cultivar.
    20160317_UBCBG-WhartonCherryGrove_Whitcomb_Cutler_145413.jpg 20160317_UBCBG-WhartonCherryGrove_Whitcomb_Cutler_145714.jpg 20160317_UBCBG-WhartonCherryGrove_Whitcomb_Cutler_145546.jpg
    20160317_UBCBG-WhartonCherryGrove_Whitcomb_Cutler_145447.jpg 20160317_UBCBG-WhartonCherryGrove_Whitcomb_Cutler_145509.jpg 20160317_UBCBG-WhartonCherryGrove_Whitcomb_Cutler_145612.jpg 20160317_UBCBG-WhartonCherryGrove_Whitcomb_Cutler_145628.jpg 20160317_UBCBG-WhartonCherryGrove_Whitcomb_Cutler_145619.jpg
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Mar 18, 2016
  2. wcutler

    wcutler Paragon of Plants Forums Moderator VCBF Cherry Scout 10 Years

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    Prunus 'Umineko' seemed to occur as only older trees. The newer version, looking identical, with the same parents but the seed and pollen parents reversed, is 'Snow Goose', and it's showing up a lot in Parks Board and city street tree plantings. So we could sort of tell that old trees were 'Umineko' and young ones were 'Snow Goose'. Until now, when we have these new 'Umineko'. All we can hope to do to identify them is document every appearance of either of them while they still have their tags. And they had better all come with tags. The Japanese name "Umineko" refers to a seagull, also a white-feathered bird.
    20160317_UBCBG-WhartonCherryGrove_Umineko_Cutler_144643.jpg 20160317_UBCBG-WhartonCherryGrove_Umineko_Cutler_144613.jpg 20160317_UBCBG-WhartonCherryGrove_Umineko_Cutler_144617.jpg 20160317_UBCBG-WhartonCherryGrove_Umineko_Cutler_144626.jpg

    Prunus 'Ojochin' is not open yet, but it has nice fat buds.
    20160317_UBCBG-WhartonCherryGrove_Ojochin_Cutler_145244.jpg 20160317_UBCBG-WhartonCherryGrove_Ojochin_Cutler_145303.jpg

    Prunus 'Surugadai-nioi' is known in Vancouver from only one location, a private apartment building. I won't say how it was ever found, though that is documented in the forums somewhere. The single white flowers are quite delicate, and as the "-nioi" suffix indicates, it is fragrant.
    20160317_UBCBG-WhartonCherryGrove_Surugadai-nioi_Cutler_144859.jpg 20160317_UBCBG-WhartonCherryGrove_Surugadai-nioi_Cutler_144800.jpg
     
  3. wcutler

    wcutler Paragon of Plants Forums Moderator VCBF Cherry Scout 10 Years

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    Here is an update on Prunus 'Surugadai-nioi', one week later, pretty much in bloom.
    20160325_UBCBG_Surugadai-nioi_Cutler_150732.jpg 20160325_UBCBG_Surugadai-nioi_Cutler_150718.jpg 20160325_UBCBG_Surugadai-nioi_Cutler_150601.jpg 20160325_UBCBG_Surugadai-nioi_Cutler_150603.jpg 20160325_UBCBG_Surugadai-nioi_Cutler_150619.jpg 20160325_UBCBG_Surugadai-nioi_Cutler_150659.jpg

    The leaves look a lot like 'Shirotae', a cultivar with double or semi-double flowers. There are several hundred photos of 'Shirotae' flowers in the VCBF Neighbourhood Blogs - I didn't make myself photograph them yesterday.
    20160325_UBCBG_Shirotae_Cutler_150511.jpg 20160325_UBCBG_Shirotae_Cutler_150434.jpg
     
  4. wcutler

    wcutler Paragon of Plants Forums Moderator VCBF Cherry Scout 10 Years

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    Prunus 'Ojochin' is just a few days from being open. It might have the best buds of any cultivar we know.
    20160325_UBCBG_Ojochin_Cutler_150804ps.jpg 20160325_UBCBG_Ojochin_Cutler_150822.jpg 20160325_UBCBG_Ojochin_Cutler_150918.jpg

    Prunus 'Umineko' was totally in bloom.
    20160325_UBCBG_Umineko_Cutler_150355-001.jpg

    And Prunus subhirtella 'Whitcomb' is still refusing to give up.
    20160325_UBCBG_Whitcomb_Cutler_151019.jpg
     
  5. wcutler

    wcutler Paragon of Plants Forums Moderator VCBF Cherry Scout 10 Years

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    These are not in the Wharton Grove, and they're not on their own roots, but they're cherries in bloom and they're growing nicely: the row of Prunus Sato-zakura Group 'Tai-haku' outside the entrance fence.
    20160325_UBCBG_Tai-haku_Cutler_151216.jpg
     
  6. wcutler

    wcutler Paragon of Plants Forums Moderator VCBF Cherry Scout 10 Years

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    April 2, 2016.
    Prunus 'Ojochin' is fully open now. That's Yong and Allen, who helped me find some trees near where they live, after Douglas Justice's VCBF Tree Talk & Walk this morning. They're frequent visitors here, knew the trees in the grove by name.
    20160402_UBCBG_Ojochin_Cutler_115042.jpg 20160402_UBCBG_Ojochin_Cutler_115209.jpg 20160402_UBCBG_Ojochin_Cutler_115640.jpg

    Prunus 'Ukon', has a tag saying 'Asagi', because Douglas used to think they were different, but he was persuaded by enough writings that there might not be such a distinction, which is so fortunate, since there are a lot of yellow-flowered cherries with various amounts of green stripes, and we would never be able to figure out the degree at which the name should be different. So 'Asagi' was removed from our Ornamental Cherries in Vancouver book and that name should be removed from this label. Unless ...
    These are not quite in bloom yet, though they are fully open now everywhere else in the city.
    20160402_UBCBG_Ukon_Cutler_115446.jpg 20160402_UBCBG_Ukon-Asagi_Cutler_115251.jpg

    Prunus
    'Gyoiko'
    has a tag saying 'Hizakura', but now Douglas calls it 'Gyoiko' in our book and when he's talking about it.
    Interesting to me, we thought 'Gyoiko', which we only knew from Stanley Park, opened a week later than 'Ukon', but here where they are together, the 'Gyoiko' is in bloom ahead of the 'Ukon'.
    20160402_UBCBG_Gyoiko_Cutler_114611.jpg 20160402_UBCBG_Gyoiko_Cutler_114633.jpg 20160402_UBCBG_Gyoiko_Cutler_114730.jpg 20160402_UBCBG_Gyoiko_Cutler_114756.jpg

    Prunus 'Shirotae' - I only have one 'Shirotae' photo. It's past blooming most places in the city, but still looks pretty good here.
    20160402_UBCBG_Shirotae_Cutler_114904.jpg
     
  7. wcutler

    wcutler Paragon of Plants Forums Moderator VCBF Cherry Scout 10 Years

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    I learned from Wybe Kuitert, Japanese Flowering Cherries, Timber Press, 1999, p134, that "[t]he [cherry] tree sheds the stipules shortly after the foliage unfolds." Our Prunus 'Gyoiko' (with the tag saying 'Hizakura') hasn't caught up on its reading. It's now about three months since these trees have opened their leaves, and these stipules are numerous and impressive.
    PrunusGyoiko_UBCBG_Cutler_20160628_P1260443.JPG PrunusGyoiko_UBCBG_Cutler_20160628_P1260444.JPG
     
  8. Willard

    Willard Generous Contributor

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    At the Wharton Cherry Grove on April 17, 2017 with Wendy Cutler.

    20170417 UBCBGPk Surugadai-nioi Willard_1045.JPG 20170417 UBCBGPk Surugadai-nioi Willard_1044.JPG 20170417 UBCBGPk Surugadai-nioi Willard_1047.JPG 20170417 UBCBGPk Surugadai-nioi Willard_1048.JPG
    'Surugadai-nioi'


    20170417 UBCBGPk Gyoiko Willard_0951.JPG 20170417 UBCBGPk Gyoiko Willard_0953.JPG
    'Gyoiko'



    20170417 UBCBGPk Shirotae Willard_0949.JPG 20170417 UBCBGPk Shirotae Willard_0947.JPG
    'Shirotae'
     
  9. Willard

    Willard Generous Contributor

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    Also at the Wharton Cherry Grove, but a couple of days earlier - April 15, 2017. Three young 'Umineko' in bloom.

    20170415 UBCBotGdn Umineko Willard _0358.JPG 20170415 UBCBotGdn Umineko Willard_0351.JPG 20170415 UBCBotGdn Umineko Willard_0345.JPG
     
  10. wcutler

    wcutler Paragon of Plants Forums Moderator VCBF Cherry Scout 10 Years

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    The two 'Ojochin' are just starting to bloom, April 20, 2017.
    Ojochin_UBCBG_Cutler_20170420_P1280913.JPG Ojochin_UBCBG_Cutler_20170420_P1280914.JPG Ojochin_UBCBG_Cutler_20170420_P1280903.JPG

    Here are emerging leaves (maybe the best of any cherry!) and stipules.
    Ojochin_UBCBG_Cutler_20170420_P1280917.JPG Ojochin_UBCBG_Cutler_20170420_P1280916.JPG
     
  11. wcutler

    wcutler Paragon of Plants Forums Moderator VCBF Cherry Scout 10 Years

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    'Ojochin' is in bloom now. The last photo shows one of the interesting characteristics of this cultivar, though it may not be unique to this cultivar (also exhibited by the Nitobe tree we've been calling Ojochin, which may turn out to be something else): many of the leaves have attenuated tips, but others have rounded ends with no tips.
    PrunusOjochin_UBCBG_Cutler_20170424_162834.jpg PrunusOjochin_UBCBG_Cutler_20170424_162715.jpg PrunusOjochin_UBCBG_Cutler_20170424_162752.jpg PrunusOjochin_UBCBG_Cutler_20170424_162725.jpg PrunusOjochin_UBCBG_Cutler_20170424_162818.jpg

    The 'Ukon' (tag still says Asagi) should be in bloom in five days or so, and 'Gyoiko' (tag still says Hizakura) seems several days behind it, many buds not showing any petals peeking through at all. Last year I was surprised that it bloomed ahead of the 'Ukon', as in Stanley Park it was usually later blooming. This year, when nothing else is following any rules, 'Gyoiko' has read the book and is following rules. The 'Gyoiko' here is a clone of the Stanley Park tree.
     

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