Three Kiku-zakura trees in bloom along north side of Turner, east of Nanaimo, at April 19, 2020. One of them must yield space to an Avium shoot.
Linda Poole, the VCBF founder and executive director, sent me this photo of the 'Shiro-fugen' grove in Callister Park, across from the PNE.
Avium Plena trees along Venables, from Slogan to Kamloops are past peak bloom. White blossoms aging to brown. Recurved sepals with rounded tips. At April 27, 2020.
Four Shiro-fugen trees along front entrance of 76 Nanaimo Place, SE corner of N. Nanaimo and Oxford are just past peak bloom, getting red eyes and green leaves at April 27, 2020.
Young Shiro-fugen still has its youthful bronze leaves on SE corner of Nanaimo and Dundas at April 27, 2020.
I'm posting the link to this video here, since it mostly features the 'Shiro-fugen' grove in Callister Park across from the PNE. It's a drone fly-over made in the last week of April this year, featuring 'Shiro-fugen' and avium 'Plena' in a few locations around town. Video Credit: @thepatweir Vancouver Cherry Blossom Fest on Instagram: “One last blast of the blossoms! Video Credit: @thepatweir”
'Shiro-fugen' trees are still doing their thing in Callister Park, with the addition of some pink snow. On the Oxford Street side of the park, starting at Kaslo, are a row along Oxford and then a few more 'Akebono' trees that were planted by the Parks Board in 2016 in honour of the 10th anniversary of the VCBF. We could still use a photo for our map when these are in bloom! I guess if I were to make them a festival favourite, it would help them get noticed, but it's a bit soon.
Janice Lin sent along these photos taken by Gako Lin on May 7 of the 'Kiku-shidare' trees on Turner Street east of Nanaimo.
December blooming does not mean global warming is upon us. 'Autumnalis Rosea' are supposed to have flowers now. They're 1cm in diameter, semi-double, pinky-white, and the trees are sparsely covered, so the flowers are easy to miss. They are much smaller than it would seem from this photo. This is from Nanaimo St at Parker, SE corner. Right next to this tree, just to the south but also still in front of the corner store, is the 'Fudan-zakura' that has appeared here several times. There are some open flowers, 2cm in diameter, but very few. These are single flowers, very white. We have never determined when this tree really gets into full bloom. We know there are usually flowers in March, but we don't have a record of when they start to look in bloom. These few flowers don't count. It's normal for all the early spring bloomers to start opening up a few flowers in the winter (though they do usually wait until January). The one across the street is still there; the smaller one at the other side of the lane is all rootstock now.
Fudan-zakura is now in full bloom on the east side of Nanaimo (south of Parker) at March 12, 2021. A few flowers are on the ground. Each year its blossom count seems to get fewer. The scar along the bark on its left side and the shoot that is emerging from the bottom rootstock doesn't look good. How long can it continue to live up to its name, "the continuous [blooming] cherry"?
Anne, you, Cherry Scouts, should try to keep rare cultivars in Vancouver. I think you can propagate them by cutting, grafting, or layering if you have your own garden and you are lucky. Or Douglas might propagate them by tissue culture but it’s cost. Cutting is suited for some cherry cultivars and it’s not cost. So you should try!!
I believe there is a BCIT-UBC tissue research project which does just that and Fudan-zakura is one of the cultivars involved. We found an Ito-kukuri in Grandview-Woodland #130 last year which came from that project. Still, it's hard to see a good cherry die, Mariko.
It's very good, Anne. I'm very glad to hear that. Some rare cherry trees in Vancouver are getting week or cut down for park renovation. You can't import these cultivars from Japan now. So people in Vancouver try to keep those cultivars. Anne, you must know the Chinese poem,"年年歳歳花相似 歳歳年年人不同" "The same flowers bloom year in and year out. But people can't stay the same." But I think cherry trees can't stay the same every year. We are losing good cherries even in Japan.
Yes, Sargent Hybrid. They have had a few names since they were posted at Hastings-Sunrise, but they're in our book now under Sargent Hybrid. I have just added a note to the 2011 posting.
The 'Shiro-fugen' grove at Callister Park is almost in full bloom. Be cautious if you want to use my photo, intentionally slightly overexposed, to identify the flower.
That's a great location to visit, but be careful parking around there - residents are not happy about people ignoring the parking signs.
