It's almost over and out now for the 2011 blooming season. Time to turn the show over to the crab apples, which are looking fabulous right now. The 'Shirofugen' cherries will be around for at least a couple more weeks, converting their bright white blossoms to pink and their bronze leaves to green. You can still catch the 'Kiku-zakura' chrysanthemum blossoms, now in three locations - check out the Kiku-zakura thread in the Cultivar Locations forum. I just found four trees on Turner Street in Hastings-Sunrise yesterday. This is a good time to find a few more locations, as there's nothing to confuse them with - they're the only cherry with upright branches and very frilly pale blossoms still in good shape, often with a small second story flower growing from the centre pushing aside the stamens. Douglas Justice has updated the cultivar descriptions on the VCBF Cherry Cultivars page. There are now 52 descriptions. Several had been added at the beginning of this season, from last year's discoveries. Ones added just now include: ‘Asagi’ (an ‘Ukon’ clone) ‘Fudan-zakura’ ‘Ichihara-tora-no-o’ ‘Jo-nioi’ ‘Kizakura’ (an ‘Ukon’ clone) Shidare-zakura ‘Yokihi’. Our Ornamental Cherries in Vancouver book written by Douglas in 2008 lists 35 cultivars. Since then, the Cherry Scouts have helped us grow the list by 50%. And that's just the ones we've been able to name. We still have a few as yet unidentified and who knows how many on our streets not yet discovered. We'll be back next year.
