Exciting discoveries today. On our way from North Van to see the 'Kiku-zakura' on William St, we passed another street of 'Kiku-zakura', or four of them anyway, on Turner just east of Nanaimo, on the north side of the street. There's one young 'Kanzan' among them. And then still making our way to William, we came across a three-block stretch of avium 'Plena' on Venables from Kamloops to Kaslo, maybe four or so per block.
Wow, beautiful pics of the trees in your link. We have Cherry trees all over my nieghbourhood here and even some in the wild, but they won't start blooming until the end of April or early May. Man, I miss a normal growing environment. Okay, I mean what I consider a normal environment. *smile*
The lone 'Fudan-zakura' on Nanaimo at Parker will be in bloom soon. There are plenty of blossoms now, but not so many that they hide the brown rot. We don't seem to have a photo posted of the three 'Whitcomb' on Nanaimo at Cambridge. Here are two of them, which I'm posting now because I need a photo for our festival map. Our city seems to specialize in these half-'Whitcomb' trees - two that I see most often in the West End are this shape and another was removed by the Parks Board one or two years ago. There is one tree just behind where I'm standing that is really hardly in bloom; these two have quite a bit of colouring, though they're not quite in bloom yet either. Across the street, in the Grandview-Woodlands neighbourhood, you can see some colouring from an 'Accolade', also not yet in bloom. Someone reported to the festival director that she was surprised that the 'Autumnalis Rosea' aren't in bloom yet, farther south on the east side of Nanaimo, from 1st up to Hastings. Actually, they are in bloom, but very sparcely, except for just a few smaller ones that are relatively nicely covered in blossoms.
Fudan-zakura has more flowers than the two Autumnalis roseas north of it on the southeast corner of Nanaimo and Parker on February 17, 2013—which isn't saying much.
OK, if it's not saying much, I'll wait a couple of weeks to say it's "in bloom", unless you convince me otherwise. Funny, it's the same three cars parked alongside the tree as in the previous photo from a year ago.
Because of its rarity in Vancouver, and its overall declining condition, this 'Fudan-zakura' was on my hit list for propagation this year. With permission of the City of Vancouver, I collected a number of twigs early this February to give to the BCIT Biotechnology program to use as a tissue culture subject. With any luck (actually, quite a bit of skill and perseverance), we will have a plants of this unusual cultivar growing on their own roots in a couple of years. I also collected 'Shujaku', 'Hosokawa-nioi' and 'Kiku-zakura' this year. When I delivered the cuttings this year, the Biotechnology instructor, Keith Turner, presented me with a couple of dozen 'Ito-kukuri' ex-plants from successfully tissue cultured material that I supplied in 2011. This program of propagating Vancouver's rare cherries is a collaborative initiative supported by UBC Botanical Garden, the Park Board and BCIT Biotechnology.
It's a month later from the first flowers and the Fudan-zakura at the southeast corner of Nanaimo and Parker is past full bloom on March 18, 2013. The two Fudans across on the west side of Nanaimo (Grandview-Woodland neighbourhood) are just peaking.
Seems like a pretty nice-looking 'Whitcomb'. It looks like two of them in the photo, but I see on google street view that all those flowers belong to the tree on the right. The one on the left will have white flowers. Looks maybe like 'Shirotae'.
I met Steven Shen on my Easter Parade Cherry Walk last Sunday, and he was keen to be sure that the Graveley Street 'Akebono' trees show on the map when they're in bloom. He sent along these photos. They're blooming on the map now. Just what I needed to know.
Steven Shen must think I have nothing to do, making me post his photos, but he's a good photographer and no scouts are posting these, so ok, here they are - the second-best 'Akebono' street in Vancouver, 6th between Penticton and Slocan. I remember there being a few much younger Sargentii hybrids at the Slocan end of the block. I'm sure they're in this thread somewhere. Steven also went to check on the Schmitt cherries on 6th and Kaslo for me and reports that they're in full bloom.
Blair Smith sent the festival a link to a stop-motion video he put together from photos on Graveley at Lillooet. http://youtu.be/-PEpVnAP8zo. You can see other photos of these trees posted from previous years. If you go to see them and want to know, to the east is a block of Kobus Magnolia, to the west across Renfrew is a block of Sargentii hybrids that we don't have a better name for.
The 'Shirofugen' grove at Callister Park is now in full bloom. The two pictures were taken today when the wind warning was still in effect. Thanks Wendy for your encouragement.
The four trees of 'Kiku-zakura' along Turner, east of Nanaimo, are past their peak bloom on May 1, 2013, aging past the ones on Williams and Lakewood (Grandview-Woodland neighbourhood).
Autumnalis in Bloom While driving to the Culture Crawl yesterday we noticed a few blossom mixed in with the last remaining leaves on many large cherries on the east side of Nanaimo. I assume they are Autumnalis, but have never noticed them previously.
Re: Autumnalis in Bloom The usual one in this region is 'Autumnalis Rosea', I have never seen 'Autumnalis' outside of Britain myself.
I thought I made a new discovery today on Turner east of Kamloops, but I see that I found these trees in 2011 (see posting #48) and decided at the time that they were 'Accolade'. Today I labelled them 'Autumnalis Rosea' and I was quite sure of that. I asked a resident if they ever looked really good, and I think she said they already did look good and were finished, but I might have led her to say that, since I thought I knew what they were. Across the street, I think are several 'Akebono' along the block. I can't figure what's up with the 'Fudan-zakura' on Nanaimo - is it finished, yet to bloom, or is this it? It seems to have a lot of buds, so maybe it will look better when the 'Accolade' tree across the street opens.
The Fudan-zakura on the east and west sides of Nanaimo near Parker are in bloom. One of them seems rather unhealthy with only one branch so I hope someone will plant more of these trees with such gorgeous blooms. I see, in previous posts, there has been discussion about what species of early cherry stretches north on Nanaimo. I suspect they are Jugatsu-zakura as they seem to be the same as those around the Kerrisdale Community Centre. On this lovely wide street today, there was a profusion of blooms with some spectacular magnolias, forsythia and now Akebone competing for attention. You can see some of these in the street views.
The Schmitt trees on the south side of E. 6, from Kaslo east to Renfrew, look like they have been in bloom for a while, at March 20, 2015.
Kanzans at Rupert Park. Photos taken from the NE corner of Rupert and Gravely. Petals starting to fall.
Double row of mighty Akebono trees on Gravely between Windermere and Lillooet. I was surprised to find a few stray blossoms...and buds. Wished I had a tape measure to document the circumference of these trees. Anyone know how old they are?
A 'Shiro-fugen' in full bloom on the north sidewalk of E. 8th Ave just west of Penticton Street. And one block over at Slocan, there are two 'Kanzan' at the front yard of the house in the northwest corner. I thought they looked different from other 'Kanzan' (paler) and wondered if they could be 'Pink Perfection,' but Wendy confirmed that they are 'Kanzan.'
