In the second photo, you can see in the background the six Sutton Place Hotel 'Shirotae' (and one 'Ukon', though you can't really see that) that were posted in the West End thread. On the east side of Burrard, this 'Shirotae' planting with the daffodils is an eye-catcher. And two blocks or so down on Nelson at Burrard, the Electra building's 'Shirotae' are putting on a good display in spite of construction on Burrard and at the building.
I know that first photo location - they're magnolias. I hate it when those things come out the same time as cherries. I've walked so many blocks to see some great-looking tree only find out it's a magnolia.
The 'Pink Perfection' trees in the courtyard and behind the building at 1500 Howe are at the perfect state of bloom now - it's so hard to not take dozens of photos of them. I already quoted Douglas Justice as describing the cultivar as "Sublimely beautiful flowers on an ugly tree". The last photo probably demonstrates both the rules set out in Justice's Rule of Incongruity; Cutler's Corollary of Discontinuity - 'Kanzan' in the centre and two 'Pink Perfection' in the background. The walkway where the Schmitt Cherries are that I posted a few days ago [edited: actually April 2, three weeks ago, in posting #89] seems to be called Seabreeze Walk. I noticed today that the planting carries on as far as Granville. There are just a few blossoms remaining, faded to white now. I just noticed in the photo that the two trunks have grown together at one point. There's a name for that, but I don't remember it. The trees intermixed with the Schmitts turned out to be 'Kanzan', just coming into bloom.
The Beatty walk blossoms are on the Marinapointe strata complex between the Landmark 33 townhomes and Yaletown LTD townhomes. They are just starting to bloom now for 2011. Hopefully they will out for the marathoners to appreciate next weekend.
Thanks. Those Marinapoint trees will definitely be out for next weekend. Have a look too at the very nice little grove of 'Ukon' trees planted on the median on Pacific Blvd. where that red circle thing is. I passed them on the bus yesterday and they're in full bloom.
Beatty Walk Blooms Yes, the Beatty Walk blossoms at the Marinapointe complex are now in blossom just in time for the marathoners! Last year these were identified as Kanzan. They are looking good on this sunny day.
Here's the group of 'Ukon' in bloom nearby the previous posting location, at Pacific Blvd and Expo Blvd, taken as I passed in the bus again.
Just to continue the 'Amanogawa' theme from my West End posting #211, here are the ones on Melville west of Bute. They're still looking pretty good. The cherry scout who lives in one of the townhouses kept her council from removing them, saying they were rare trees. She's going to have trouble convincing them of that now that fourteen new ones have gone in outside the nearby liquor store (see the cited West End posting). On to 'Shirofugen' - this trio across from Burrard Skytrain Station on Melville look excellent. This group of ten 'Shirofugen' on Georgia west of Bute, north side, in a small courtyard that passes thru to the lane, were a new discovery. At the far end are two new 'Shogetsu'. I wonder if they were supposed to be 'Shirofugen', but there are a lot of plantings around of the two cultivars, so maybe they were meant to be different, so cherry scouts could compare them. Do you think?
Oh, man, I thought I posted these, but I must have just imagined it, as I hadn't even renamed them yet. They're from May 2. I think this is the same apartment complex as the 'Akebono' posted last month (Citygate), but this time it's the Viceroy building on the north side of National, between Main and Quebec - a whole grove of 'Kanzan' in a park-like setting. Across National is another similar planting. Driving along Quebec, one block to the north at Milross you can see a planting of several young 'Shirofugen'.
This posting is not timely. Actually, it's two years late. 100 'Akebono' were planted in 2010 in David Lam Park, a donation by Dr. David Lam himself. This is a plan of the cherries on the site. This PDF document shows the design of the text and graphics on the granite plaques. View attachment DavidLamPark-12775-Rev3.pdf
Re: Downtown - the first Akebono blossoms of 2012 Time for the first lame Burrard Station 'Akebono' blossom photo. This year I'm outdoing myself on "lame", as I only had the phone camera with me. Just a very few of these blossoms are out, but the buds are all pink. The quote above was from 2010. In 2011, I thought the time from first blossoms to "in bloom" would be longer, but it wasn't - they were almost in bloom two weeks later. March has been really cold, rainy and windy this year (the sky was grey with a few drops of rain an hour after I took these photos), but I think the schedule will be the same. They should be at peak bloom this year for the festival's opening right here at noon on April 4. Note a bit of the festival banner in the bottom right corner of the first photo.
Unfortunately several beautiful 28 year old cherry trees outside Joey Burrard Restaurant (at 820 Burrard Street) are being slowly but systematically destroyed. Each spring for the last three years the gardeners remove a large branch or two from one or more of these seemingly healthy trees. In past years they have smeared the fresh cut stump with mud, apparently to disguise the activity. They are slowly and inconspicuously destroying the trees, presumably with the intent of opening up an unobstructed street-view of the restaurant advertising signage behind them. These trees are the focal point of a popular, sunny, "public access" plaza and attract many groups of photographers when they bloom, they are an asset to the neighbourhood. Photos of these trees were taken last April can be seen in wcutler post #101 earlier in this thread. Numerous more branches have recently disappeared, it's such a shame to see this happening.
Bud buddy sent me photos that he's unable to post from his iPhone. The comments are his. Only one viable branch left on this one. Next Spring I expect a clear view of the sign! Only two branches left here, a 50% reduction from last year. This one was "topped" last week. Some of last year's mud-smeared destruction plus another fresh cut - top left. Here's an apparently healthy but severed limb left hanging on the tree. (right side) I suggested that Bud buddy might want to talk to a planner at city hall who would let the restaurant put up a sign at the street if they stop destroying the cherries. He replied:
Beautiful tree by Lupo Restaurant The photo does not really do justice to this classic tree by the Lupo restaurant on Hamilton near Smithe down from the library. I will leave it to others to identify what it is. Also the Beatty Walk cherry trees seen in previous years are just starting to bud now so they should be showing off just in time for the festival!
It's 'Akebono', and it's out ahead of the Burrard Station trees and even ahead of the Grosvenor Plaza trees, which I'd though were always first. Thanks for posting this.
Re: Downtown - the first Akebono blossoms of 2011 March 31 and the Burrard Station akebono trees are now in their full glory!
Ah! Dedicated scout out in the rain to get photos for us. You saved me a walk downtown this morning and I'm running late, so thanks for this! They look glorious, but still not fully open, which is just what we want. I've moved your Art Gallery posting to the Plums thread. I know those trees.
The 'Shirotae' at the Joey Burrard Restaurant are maybe half in bloom and looking not bad now. Across the street is a different neighbourhood, and those 'Shirotae' have not started to open at all.
I searched through "the book" and thought I must have discovered a new cherry outside Christ Church Cathedral on Burrard. I knew it wasn't a plum. However, before really ending up with Easter egg all over my face I checked at the office. These Spire- shaped trees with the very pretty blossoms are PEAR. Wendy, you can decide where this posting should go..............
Here is the new (2010) planting of 100 'Akebono' at David Lam Park, planted on the north and south sides of the park. What was interesting for me here is that most are looking very white, and some are looking pink, so I thought it was mostly 'Somei-yoshino' with a few 'Akebono'. However, they're all supposed to be 'Akebono', and one I'd have thought was 'Somei-yoshino' has a tag saying Akebono. There only seems to be one staminode per tree - just enough. I seem to be hopeless at judging the blossom size or anything else. But it's not the case that you can distinguish those cultivars by the colour, even early in the season like this.
What they weren't protected from is their owner, who has lopped them off about half-way up. So now they look worse than most other 'Rancho'. It's not like these are dense trees that would block out much light, and they weren't really blocking a view.
Drake Street, between Burrard and Granville, is like a construction zone then suddenly, in a tiny courtyard, are three snowy Shirotaes with a Maple for contrast. Wonderful and wondrous, they transform their tiny space and somehow bring a little peace to the area. Interestingly, while the trees flank a lane, on the other side of Drake it's called Continental Street. Who knew?
The set of 'Shirotae' on the east side of Burrard south of Robson, which have been discussed quite a bit this year, are in bloom now, and as a group they still look pretty good. It's a case of the whole being better than the sum of the parts - the individual trees look pretty strange. But so far, they're looking healthier than the ones across the street, in the West End neighbourhood. Is there any chance that the person doing the pruning is doing something useful?