'Shiro-fugen' in Kerrisdale - The community centre put on a Cherry Blossom Festival event today, under the 'Shiro-fugen' trees in bloom (not so usual for April 26!). You can see the new Petal Mats, which I'm calling "friendship mats", because they zip together. This whole block on 46th east of East Boulevard looks splendid, with as many flowers on the ground as on the trees, but still lots and lots of flowers on the trees. Those trees have a LOT of flowers. Here's a 'Kanzan' street for the map - I had it pending from last summer. There's a new 'Shiro-fugen' and new 'Kanzan'.
Sparse but true. On the northeast corner of Yew and West 43 street is one old "Cherry of the Tenth Month" starting to bloom.
Note the white buds in your second photo. That's my distinguishing characteristic for this cultivar, 'Jugatsu-zakura', compared with 'Autumnalis Rosea', which has pink buds. I'm not sure any cherry experts agree with me on this.
Lots to see in Kerrisdale right now! I'll start with 'Accolade', because they're supposed to bloom earliest of the ones I saw today. These festival favourites are on Yew between 43rd and 46th. The other festival favourite 'Accolade' location is at 50th at Marine Crescent. Some of the trees are almost fully open, while others are not at 50%. So in a week or so when the several 'Akebono' come out, there should still be 'Accolade' trees looking good.
Somehow I found Beechwood again. There's one 'Accolade' tree, north of 57th, amongst a run of 'Kanzan'. Round the corner at 57th, then right onto Marine Drive, I came across two nice 'Beni-shidare'. This festival favourite 'Beni-shidare' is the prettiest tree ever, not quite in bloom. Well, except that these 'Pandora' are the prettiest trees ever. They're festival favourites too.
I found an unknown cherry, which looks like Oshima. Its flower is simple, pure white, and just start to bloom. It is located at 2680 West 50 Ave, Vancouver, among Akebono & Accolade.
I copied this to Ornamental Cherries before I realized this had been posted here before. Mariko posted it in 2008 as 'Washi-no-o'. It looks pretty similar to the others of that cultivar in the neighbourhood.
0 Yes, it looks more like Washi-no-o. This tree is more upright, with white to pale pink bud, short peduncled, petal tips undulate edged.
Here is a very exciting 'Beni-shidare', which I saw from across Malkin Park at Balaclava and 43rd. The park does not come through to Blenheim, the next street over, so I walked along the west side of the park until I came to a clearing and a gate, and there was the tree, and Janice and David Podmore, the owners of the tree, who happened at one time to be neighbours of VCBF artistic director. They were told the age by the previous owner of the house, so they understand it to be 90 years old.
Kerrisdale 'Tai-haku' were in full bloom four days ago, on Balsam, 41st to 43rd. Major excitement for me was finding a street of big old 'Ichiyo', on Marguerite south from 52nd. Only a very few flowers were open. That fungus in the last photo is not a good sign. Also on the block, curiously, is one Sargent hybrid cherry. Toward the end of the block, near 54th, is one 'Beni-shidare', and a few 'Kanzan', also not in bloom yet, which I didn't photograph
Those photos were from March 25. Today, April 1, they're fully open. Two of the trees are in poor shape and have bronze leaves. The others a good looking trees with very green leaves. That block also has, in addition to the Sargent hybrid, one young 'Akebono', at least two 'Kanzan' and three 'Shiro-fugen'.
The 'Pandora' trees on Arbutus south of 51st were almost open on March 26. They still look spectacular. I neglected to get the location of this plum tree, but I think it was on the same block. Best looking plum tree ever. Speaking of best-looking trees, @mweaver reported this 'Somei-yoshino' in 2009 without an ID, and I'm abashed to say that no-one, including me, has followed up on it to identify it or get it on our map. The original posting is at Kerrisdale. I saw it last weekend and guessed 'Akebono' only because it had no flowers open at all on March 26 and West End 'Somei-yoshino' were completely open, but we west-enders are out-of-touch with the real world. Douglas Justice remembered it as 'Somei-yoshino'. And yes, that's what it is. It's in a front yard with lots of space around it, a perfect setting. These photos are from yesterday, so it will be worth a visit during the first week of April.
Across the street from the tree in the previous posting are several young 'Akebono' running down 51st for at least a block. At the end of Beechwood at 57th is a nice 'Accolade' that has been posted here before. It's an easy and worth-while trip from here up West Boulevard to maybe the nicest 'Beni-shidare' in the city - this is the one featured in our book on Ornamental Cherries – 2014 Edition - Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival.
The plum is catty-corner to the 'Somei-yoshino', just east of Beechwood at 51st. It was a nicer day today.
The 'Somei-yoshino' is in full bloom today. Still surprising to me, the 'Akebono' trees across the street are also in full bloom. The third photo shows the 'Akebono' in the foreground with the 'Somei-yoshino' in the background to the right. I have been running the line that 'Somei-yoshino' look more white than 'Akebono' because they open earlier, so when the latter are in bloom, the 'Somei-yoshino' have faded to white. But these trees opened at the same time. And the 'Somei-yoshino' went white right away, while the others have a lot of pink in the petals. It's pretty hard to tell which is which from fallen blossoms. There were quite a few whole flowers under the 'Somei-yoshino', just a few under the other, and no single petals under either. The top two are 'Somei-yoshino', bottom are 'Akebono'. Fortunately, there's the staminode in the 'Akebono'. Lucky - there aren't all that many of those on the flowers this year.
50th Avenue and Marine Crescent!! Shirley Willard took me here two days ago, and we thought the 'Accolade' trees were still coming into bloom, as there were a lot of trees with just buds and it wasn't all that full a display on 50th. Well, guess what. The Parks Board has been in-filling with 'Akebono'. All the young trees are 'Akebono'. It's not like planting two different cultivars of cherry increases the bio-diversity. For those two, it doesn't extend the blooming time by much - just makes the display of each look less exciting. Except right now. They are both in bloom and the street looks excellent. It's pretty hard to notice that the trees have different flowers. Here are 'Accolade' (with an 'Akebono' in the background). And 'Akebono'. I don't know if the neighbours all agree to not park on the street during cherry season or what. I parked at the corner where there were two other cars, but some people doing a photo shoot asked the car in front of me to back up close to my car to leave the street clear. Around the corner on Marine Crescent at 51st is a block of 'Somei-yoshino' with a much younger 'Akebono' across the street.
