I just saw this group of around 15 baby Snow Goose trees planted in Stanley Park, just east of the tunnel from Ceperley Playground. They weren't labelled, but our Parks Board contact, Bill Stephen, told our festival director that's what they are. I've read that the trees are supposed to bloom early, but they still have a few blooms now in late season. They're supposed to have an upright habit (planted that close together, I certainly hope they stay narrowly upright). The blossoms are white, around 2.5cm in diameter. The calyxes seem long; the sepals are serrated.
Re: Snow Goose - single white, upright I was so excited that I guessed this one at the UBC Shop in the Garden before I looked at the label, in spite of the Birchbark cherry trunk. I'm glad the ones in Stanley Park aren't grafted onto that.
Re: Snow Goose - single white, upright I don't think they're labelled in Stanley Park. Bill Stephen, of the Parks Board, told Linda Poole about them. What is their proper name?
Re: Snow Goose - single white, upright The 'Snow Goose' goslings, marching in line over to Lost Lagoon. These seem to be grafted down at ground level, so they have naturally shiny trunks. I don't understand why the one at the shop would be grafted onto P. serrula.
Re: Snow Goose - single white, upright Same as 'Umineko' (or does it matter which is named first - our book has P. incisa x P. speciosa for 'Umineko'). It looks a lot like 'Umineko' in the blossoms, sepals and leaves. I wonder if it's just more upright than 'Umineko', or is it really very, very similar.
Both are from P. speciosa x P. incisa. 'Umineko' was originated by C. "Cherry" Ingram in England during the 1920s. 'Snow Goose' came from A. Doorenbos in Holland, was named in 1970. Those following the desired approach place the female parent first. However, it is not always generally known who got the pollen and who gave it. So some writers just automatically list all hybrid parentage names in alphabetical order. That may be why you have seen it as P. incisa x P. speciosa, "i" coming before "s" in the alphabet.
Here are two views of a tree labelled as 'Snow Goose', dated 1999, at the Savill Garden in Windsor Great Park in the UK. I was very surprised how spreading it was, having only seen the very narrowly upright two-year old trees in Vancouver. Well, they're two-year-old plantings. I don't know what age that makes them.
Here's fall foliage on the 'Snow Goose'. Photos were obviously taken on different days. I was hoping to get the whole row of them coloured up, but at this rate, I think the first ones are going to lose their leaves before the others turn.
I don't think this is adding anything to the body of knowledge about these trees, but here's the march of the 'Snow Goose' in our snowy day today. [Edited a bit later:] I just added the second shot, improved by Picasa. The scene felt more like what the first shot shows, but the trees are easier to see in the second one.
Notice that the British trees, in addition to being older are forking right at the ground - they were not grafted on top of poles like the BC ones. This difference is liable to affect growth behavior.
It would be usual for commercially produced cherries to be grafted even when grafted at ground level and trained to have a single stem. (There has been some wholesale production from cuttings of at least a few kinds, 'Kanzan' and 'Snofozam' for instance). So there would still be the influence of a rootstock. The British specimens look to have been raised from cuttings.
Or at least, were grown by someone who wasn't bothered about training to a single stem; maybe they thought low branching would be beneficial in that less formal situation, and/or would increase the amount of flowering at eye level.
The one on the left forks at the ground, as cutting-raised specimens do; the one on the right has a short trunk, which could be taken to imply a taller single stem was in the works before it was allowed to grow without additional training.
I was sure that the 'Umineko' I posted at UBCBG on Wednesday (Ornamental Cherries at UBCBG 2021) looked larger, heftier, than the 'Snow Goose' trees around town that are around six years old, but I'm not certain of that now, having seen a 'Snow Goose' in Stanley Park that might have looked similar to the UBCBG 'Umineko' had it been allowed to keep all its branches on the trunk down to the ground (I've posted it at West End / Stanley Park). It's unusual to see a 'Snow Goose' high grafted, as your first tree is here. In Vancouver, the 'Umineko' are old and the 'Snow Goose' are young. Ones in between are anybody's guess, unless the grafting gives it away. I don't know what's with the row of 'Snow Goose' in Stanley Park - they are 12 years old and are less than half the size of the 'Umineko' at UBCBG that are half their age. I think the 'Snow Goose' are low grafted, though, maybe on dwarfing rootstock (I'm making this up), and maybe that's what makes the difference. but if that's generally the case, then big - 'Umineko', smaller - 'Snow Goose', and young - 'Snow Goose'. I can't remember if I've seen reports of young 'Umineko' outside of UBCBG.
