Amanogawa - Downtown, Melville from Bute to Jervis The Prunus Sato-zakura Group 'Ama-no-gawa' trees at the entrance to each townhouse along this row seem to be looking better this year. Only the one closest to Bute has many flowers yet on April 23, but they should be open soon.
Well, I almost changed my guess to Shogetsu. Now I'm right in the middle, have no idea. Pro Shirofugen: brown appearance of the trees (but con: it's not from the leaves but rather from the bud scales), distinct transition from pedicel to calyx, round petals Pro Shogetsu: green leaves (but con: Shirofugens can have green leaves when they're in the heat of a building), early opening (Shirofugens are mostly not open yet; the only one I've seen is below) New Shirofugen blossoms are more pink - see this for comparison, a known Shirofugen on Cardero at Comox just starting to open There could be both at this location. There are three trees not open at all near the driveway, these three surrounding Shirotae south of the Starbucks, and two small ones north of the Starbucks entrance that are more fully open.
I was visiting Vancouver last week, and Wendy Cutler told me about this lovely group of Shirofugens at 401 West Georgia: Homer Street entrance and courtyard behind
They're Shogetsu. I had just never seen 8 of them in one place and didn't really believe it. [Edited by wcutler 2012june23]: No they're not, they're 'Shirofugen'. They have June 'Shirofugen' blossoms. Except for two smaller trees to the north of the Starbuck entrance, which are 'Shogetsu'.
Re: Downtown - the first Akebono blossoms of 2010 First posting 2010 Well, who knew that on February 16, 2010, I'd be what seems to be a week late for the lame photo of the first Burrard Station blossom! If the past two years' timing holds for this year, I'd have to guess these trees will be in bloom around March 10. These trees are still looking generally green. Buds on the trees over at Grosvenor Place on Dunsmuir are all pink though not plump, but I didn't see a single open blossom.
Re: Downtown - the first Akebono blossoms of 2010 It's just two days later, and there's a lot more pink. The effect in this photo might be from the sun - the trees are definitely not in bloom, but there are easily as many open blossoms as there were for the Cherry Jam last March 31. I think I'm going to be so wrong about the March 10 peak bloom prediction. Should I change it to March 1? I meant to add this photo of some trees in a lane two blocks up from Burrard Station. The only blossoms are the ones receiving the outflow from the hot air vent, and the ones just over it.
Re: Downtown - the first Akebono blossoms of 2010 So wrong - maybe I meant you'd have to get there by March 10 to see them. It's February 25th and the Burrard Station Akebonos are maybe 40% open - definitely farther along than on March 25, 2008 and April 27, 2009. A guy standing near me noted that they're a month early. I'm always amazed when people are aware of the blooming dates. Here are some Akebonos on Hamilton south of Smythe. There are another three about this size and about this far open on Davie at Richards.
Re: Downtown - Burrard Station Akebonos February 28 and Burrard Station is OPEN !! The Akebonos, that is. I caught a few potential Cherry Scouts too.
Thanks for the photos. How do you get pics without crowds of people in them, especially since the Olympics are on?
You mean all those people? It was even right after we'd won the hockey game that I was down there. 1 - It's denial - I don't move in an Olympics world; 2 - the blossoms were up there and the people were down here; 3 - I crop the people out; and 4 - I take about 50 photos and select 3, so I get some choices of what to show. Though my options are diminished a bit after I discard the ones out of focus.
Ah, I see. Thanks. I was just expecting to see the streets jammed with people, but I guess only in selected areas. Back on topic (or at least I hope I am) - in the downtown core area, how many of these trees do you think are planted by the city, and how many are on private land? Are there any privacy issues that need to be address when trying to photograph such trees?
Grosvenor Plaza Akebono's are in bloom. I haven't got any pictures of them yet. I'll try to take some and post later.
I don't have numbers for just downtown, and I don't have numbers for private trees. The last street tree numbers for the city we have are in this thread: How many cherries and plums in Vancouver My personal take is that if somebody plants a tree in full view of the public, it's a public tree. We try to give intersections rather than exact addresses of private houses. Back yards and behind fences are out unless the owner is keen on showing off their tree. One of the local newspapers has run a contest for the past couple of years for best curbside garden, asking people to nominate gardens they like, identified of course by exact address, so that seems the same to me - out there to be seen is out there. In the downtown, things are even more public. What's not behind a fence seems part of the public space, though occasionally there's a sign posted otherwise. I know not everyone agrees with what I think about this. But most people are proud of their beautiful trees. It gets more dicey if we'd like to comment about what a terrible job someone did on their pruning, as I just did about trees in front of a downtown apartment building (in the West End blog). If anyone complains about our showing off their tree, I'll remove the posting.
Just to continue what I was saying in reply to kevind76's question, the Grosvenor Plaza trees that Gonul just snuck in and commented on while I was typing (you can see last year's photos in posting #41), I refuse to see how could photographing such public trees be a privacy issue, though that plaza is owned by the owner of those buildings. Surely for the expense of planting and maintaining those trees, they want people to notice them. They were selected as VCBF Festival Favourites in 2008.
These Akebono are really beautiful at Burrard Station. You may take better photos 11am~1 pm near noon time when the sunlight is through highrise buildings from the east.
If you walk with Wendy at 2pm from Burrard Station in Downtown this Sunday afternoon, you may see these beautiful scene along the trip.
As you face the building, the tree on the left in that group is an 'Ukon'. I can't tell that looking at the photo, but I remember it from last year. And they're in the West End Blog, where this posting belongs, but it feels like downtown.
I got off the bus a couple of blocks early when I saw these 'Akebono' trees in bloom at Andy Livingstone Park, at Keefer and Carroll. I neglected to notice how many trees - four maybe, in a very attractive setting. The photographer says he might become a cherry scout, and the woman in red was thrilled to learn about the festival.
I saw a lot of cherry trees in the park west of Denman and Georgia. The north side of Georgia is 'legally' downtown, so that's why I'm posting here.There are about 10 of them as you walk down the path to Coal Harbour. There seem to be two types of cherry as one set of trees is just budding. I think the first ones are Akebono. Here's an updated photo from a different view; further down the path.
