Douglas Justice's February blog, at February 2017 in the Garden | UBC Botanical Garden, mentions how hard it is to predict what to write about that will actually make it into bloom. He did pretty well, all things considered. I'm sure these 'Whitcomb' cherries next to the parking lot were in full bloom at this time last year. This year, there are some flowers that hint at what is yet to come. Rhododendron ririei buds have coloured up, and each cluster has an open flower or two. Here is Chimonanthus praecox 'Grandiflorus' in the Asian Garden. It looks a little like Hamamelis to me, but it's in the Calycanthaceae family, not Hamamelidaceae. My favourite of the Hamamelis is this H. 'Carmine Red'. The young Hamamelis 'Arnold Promise' is densely flowered and has a nice shape. The Abeliophyllum distichum that looks so attractive in Douglas's blog photo, has only swelling buds so far. Nadia posted a few more from the blog in her Sign of Spring posting.
Things are still slow on the cherry front, but one of the 'Whitcomb' cherries is looking better right now than any other 'Whitcomb' in the city, or at least a larger percentage of its buds have opened. I'm guessing that it's cold enough out here that it had few open flowers to be destroyed in the snow.