Your instincts are pretty good. I'm not sure you should be believing everything I say. For instance, two blocks from your tree is another tree that is thinner and paler than the 'Kanzan' nearby, but the flowers look like 'Kanzan' to me, and I figured it was just a sick tree. This tree is between 6th and 7th, east side, just north of the lane. But on the ground was a sprig that looks just like 'Pink Perfection' (4th photo), except for the bronze leaves. Did you pull that off your tree and carry it for two blocks?? If I had known you were going to be right there, I'd have asked you to look at the 'Kanzan' trees right there! Slocan, between 6th and 7th (location in photo name is wrong). I put them on the map last August pending checking that they really were 'Kanzan' and getting a posting. I'm just as glad I went out there myself. See next posting.
Look at this huge beautiful 'Shiro-fugen'! Two of them, but one is spectacular. The address for these is 2108 Cassiar at 5th, but I saw the large one as I was driving by on 5th. They're visible from both streets. I try not to get overly excited about trees where the graft looks bizarre, as it does here, but otherwise, the tree looks great. I'm not sure I've seen one larger than this. The setting is perfect. I'm glad I saw this small (only by comparison) 'Shiro-fugen' first, a block away on 5th at Skeena. I'd never have paid it any mind if I'd seen the others first.
One Fudan-zakura on east side of Nanaimo, south of Parker is doing its best to bloom. When I got there this morning there were petals on the sidewalk.
Not showy, but there are signs of life on this tree located on the NorthEast corner of Nanaimo and Parker. Guessing Autumnalis Rosea, although some of the buds do look pretty white.
There are two possibilities here: 1. My idea is that 'Jugatsu-zakura' have white buds and 'Autumnalis Rosea' have pink buds is wrong Or 2. There is at least one 'Jugatsu-zakura' on this street. The flowers here seem to be opening white and aging pink. I think the ones you posted in the UBC thread look much more pink, even the ones that are not quite open yet. They are not opening white. I caution you to remember that so far, no-one agrees with me. [Edited]I think some of the trees on Nanaimo are 'Autumnalis Rosea', particularly the ones with the skinny trunks.
Structurally all the ones in these pictures posted here recently - unless I missed one - are 'Autumnalis Rosea'. Trees I saw in flower when I went to Britain one March fit depictions I have seen, wherein the 'Autumnalis' had thick, sparse twigs with a scattering of small, short-petalled flowers with fewer petals than 'Autumalis Rosea'. Even during the peak spring bloom the effect was sparse, the flowers undersized and underdeveloped in aspect, relative to 'Autumnalis Rosea'. The best reference I have seen to compare the two is the small, color photo illustrated Eyewitness tree handbook I mentioned during a previous discussion. The photo of the flowering sprigs (from the Hillier arboretum) presented side-by-side shows the same appearance as I saw at Wisley, where they had one of each flowering right next to one another. The handbook is still (or again) in shops because I saw an edition of it recently at a local independent garden center.
The pictures in that book (Coombes, Eyewitness Handbooks - Trees, Dorling Kindersley Limited, London, first American Edition, 1992) seem a little misleading. I think the 'Autumnalis' ('Jugatsu-zakura') is an autumn or winter cutting (sort-of implied in the comment "semidouble white flowers may open during winter") while the 'Autumnalis Rosea' is a spring cutting with new leaves, hence the longer pedicels and larger flowers. It's harder to argue with seeing them side-by-side, and you're saying that the appearance of 'Autumnalis' doesn't change much in the spring, and we should be checking for sparser and thicker branches than on 'Autumnalis Rosea'. Thanks for the reply.
You are clinging to a similarity between the two that isn't there. Whether the Eyewitness photos are concurrent or not the general appearance of each kind, relative to one another, is accurately conveyed. A tree that was in a Seattle park until the 1990s, was almost certainly 'Autumnalis'* was so odd looking with its light sprinkling of dinky flowers that it seems it may have been cut down because somebody at Parks didn't like it - instead of having deteriorated and died on its own. I have seen no other examples here, and I can understand why. *I saw it maybe once, driving by before it disappeared, did not have a chance to study it myself.
Thanks, Ron. If there is any more to say about what is or is not 'Jugatsu-zakura', let's discuss it in the new thread in Ornamental Cherries: Identification: 'Autumnalis' ('Jugatsu-zakura') vs 'Autumnalis Rosea', to which I've copied five of the postings here.
The double row of Accolades on East 5th Avenue between Nootka and Lillooet appeared to be 5-10 % in bloom this morning.
By this afternoon, it looked like at least 20% bloom at the same location (East 5th Avenue between Nootka and Lillooet).
Two trees of Snofozam in full bloom at NW corner front yard of Slocan and E. Pender on March 12, 2016.
How could I not have made these 'Akebono' on 6th between Penticton and Slocan festival favourites? Well, I've fixed that - they're shown as favourites now, a block almost as exciting as the one on Graveley, which is also in bloom now. I see that all my photos of this street have been taken in the evening on my way to Burnaby. Maybe some day we'll get photos that do this street justice. On the way there, I passed a wannabee favourite, 3rd west from Penticton, with several young 'Akebono'.
If Schmitt cherries could be exciting, this location would be exciting now, and it's so close to the previous location, on 6th between Kaslo and Renfrew, it's worth having a look. I thought they were just coming into bloom, but the flowers are so small, that actually, I see they're in full bloom now. Nearby, on Kaslo at 4th, are two 'Akebono' and a 'Beni-shidare'. This is the view directly south on Kaslo. I can't figure out where those pink trees are, or if they are cherries or plums, but the colour looks too intense for plums. They're not on our map.
Akebonos on 6th between Penticton and Slocan are starting to drop petals, but still beautiful. View attachment 139650
Avium Plena in full bloom on west side Renfrew, for several blocks from Dundas to Hastings. Looking good.
Wow, that's a great find! Edited 2018apr29: Egan Davis took his walk today along the whole row; we found only one 'Plena'; the rest were all 5-petaled avium.
This city has planted in Callister Park, in honour of the VCBF 10th Anniversary, nine 'Akebono' trees. We could use photos for our map when they come into bloom in the spring. Here is the city's map of the location. It looks like the trees would be at Oxford and Kaslo.
