I just saw these white cherry trees in peak bloom on Yew and 8th (two of them) and just in front of the St. Augustine Church (though a bit smaller there). I'm not 100% certain, but they could be 'Shirotae' (white, double flowers, slightly fragrant and blossoming in mid-April). Will add an entry with their locations on the map. :)
'Tai-haku' time already at Seaforth Peace Park on Cornwall. These are so beautiful, even or maybe especially on a dreary rainy day.
At Kits Beach (Kitsilano Beach Park), the Oshima-zakura is past its prime, but it still looks good, and is still a little fragrant. There is only one now, was already missing the other one last year. You can see the stump in the first photo.
This distance photo of the two large 'Akebono' at Kits Beach along Cornwall Avenue, on the south side of the park, is here just to point out that these trees are past their prime now. Here are photos in the same area at Kits Beach as the Oshima-zakura, just a half block along the east side of the park, the same distance from the actual beach as the 'Akebono' on Cornwall. Early in the blooming season of the other trees in this area, I suppose I'd have been sure of what I was looking at. These have all been posted in this thread as 'Somei-yoshino'. One is in full bloom, just a little past its prime, not much ahead of the 'Akebono' trees on Cornwall. I don't think I have blossom photos from this tree. Here are other trees in this close group. And a different tree. Jacqueline Lee of the Green Club of BC has pointed out to me that the pedicels on 'Somei-yoshino' are much more hairy than on 'Akebono' - you can see the almost fuzzy pedicels in the second photo below. Here are two trees close to the tennis courts behind the Oshima-zakura. These are barely open. At QE Park, the one 'Somei-yoshino' was also last weekend hardly open, not even at bud colour visible stage, while all the 'Akebono' there had many open flowers, though definitely not at peak bloom. That tree has been declining in health, with lots of dead branches removed or cut back. By the timing of these trees being so far behind the others, I first thought they were 'Akebono', but they haven't previously been identified as that, and they have the same extra hairy pedicels. Maybe they also are failing. Unfortunately for those of us seeking easy answers to these ID questions, there has been barely a petaloid in sight on 'Akebono' trees this year, except that @Willard claims to be seeing some.
Raphael, whom I met at Douglas Justice's walk, put a marker on our festival map for this tree at 3261 W 5th Avenue, east of Blenheim. I saw him again at Alex Downie's walk, at which he promised to send photos but did not send them, so I went there grousing about having to do everything myself, but now that I've seen what I thought last night was the most beautiful 'Akebono' tree ever, all is forgiven. I am so happy to have met Rafael and to have met this tree. But now having seen the structure of the large 'Somei-yoshino' tree above, I'm less sure of the ID. We don't really see big old ungrafted 'Akebono' trees. But nothing about this tree said 'Somei-yoshino' to me - not the shape, nor the thin smooth branch ends, nor the small stars in the flowers. I could not get good detailed flower photos. The limb structure of the tree is similar to that of the 'Tai-haku' trees in Seaforth Peace Park (posting 352). Compare the habit photo above to these 'Akebono' trees on 1st east of Blenheim.
Junglekeeper put this 'Shirotae' on our festival map six years ago. It looked beautiful today, even in the pouring rain. It smelled nice too.
The 'Yokihi' is still hanging in there, and the flowers just opening on April 23 are beautiful. These photos show the hairless pedicels. There are a lot more photos of the tree next door in an Ornamental Cherries forum thread at (1) Identification: - Late Season Double-white | UBC Botanical Garden Forums. This tree is had only one flower almost open on April 23. The tree has a more natural shape than in the photos taken two years ago. It was hard for me to believe it's the same tree, but the location seems the same in relation to the house. Green Club of BC member Jacqueline Lee has suggested that this is Cerasus serrulata ‘Nobilis’, which we would call 'Edo-zakura'. At this point, @Douglas Justice had misgivings, but that's its name in photos for now. Edited - I really did take photos on April 20, just found them: These are from April 23:
I could not believe this was the same tree as the 'Yokihi' in posting 358. The flowers five days ago were such a beautiful deep pink; today they're almost white. And I saw those huge bunches of buds, around 27 in one bunch in that last photo above, but it didn't click that that was going to be one very tight ball of flowers. These were so amazing, and they felt wonderful - cool and soft but dense. Of course I took too many photos. You can see that there are some leaves with a rounded tip instead of the usual acuminate tip. I posted photos of the unknown tree two doors down, in the Ornamental Cherries thread at https://forums.botanicalgarden.ubc.ca/threads/late-season-double-white.100244/#post-436844. Jacqueline said the owner was very proud of his tree when she last saw it. It looks like he's not going to have it much longer. Here are just a couple of photos; the rest are in the other thread. I'm just calling it UnkTreeWhite Flowers now.
I don't know for what all having many of the leaves "lack[ing] the acuminate top" (not having a pointed tip) is a defining characteristic, but it's one that Wybe Kuitert (Japanese Flowering Cherries, Timber Press, Portland, Oregon, 1999) mentions on page 301 for 'Ojochin'.
I didn't check out how many of the 'Kiku-zakura' are still there on Maple south of 12th, but here are two in the block south of 14th, with some flowers fully open, but there are SO MANY buds - these will be solidly covered in flowers soon. The 'Shogetsu' on that block might be the largest one I've seen, with the heftiest limbs.
I took some pictures from the Yokihi and the one you call it 'UnkTreeWhite Flowers' on May/02/2023. They are so different, not just flowers, also the leaves. Yokihi come with lime leaves, and Edo come with copper leaves.
We walked South along Maple Street from 12th Avenue today and saw around 5 'Kiku-zakura' in full bloom. It was my first time seeing this cultivar and it is one of my favourites now :) The flowers are very elegant, dense, and so fluffy! I could not stop taking photos from all possible angles. I have attached a few below.
Aren't they so great?! Your third photo looks like a champagne glass full of kiku bubbles ("kiku" means chrysanthemum in Japanese). They last a long time too, as those second story flowers develop a bit in the centre and keep the blossoms looking fresher than they might otherwise look. 'Shiro-fugen' work that way too - new flowers keep opening and some of the old ones develop more stuff from the centres.
These three 'Shiro-fugen' seem to be doing OK three years later. The flower photo is from "Hope". The large 'Shiro-fugen' nearby at Vanier Park, close to the road, is looking very good, with flowers at their most interesting - lots of variation in colour and not yet looking withered. I was incorrectly taken in by the 'Shiro-fugen' flowers on what I thought were suckers from the roots, but those are on a weak little stem from the trunk; you can see by the difference in the leaves that this is low grafted onto Prunus avium.
I checked the tree at NW corner of Arbutus & 8th, since I heard it could be in full bloom now. Nothing like the full bloom photos of this tree ('Colt'?) posted from previous years, but some flowers and buds on branches, although some flowers/petals fallen on the ground, so confusing. I’m new here & don’t know much, but Kits area has seen strong wind in the last several days. Kits Point area is seeing some trees starting to bloom (Creelman/Cypress, McNicoll) but some flowers have already fallen, so a bit sad…
This is a whole month earlier than last year. Honestly, I can't tell if these are coming or going. But I was totally caught off guard to see these flowers so early.
With good weather in the past few days, Akebono at Yew & Cornwall starting to bloom. Maybe 50% open, but already looking lovely, hope more to bloom from here.
Yes, 'Accolade'. There IS an 'Accolade' on the map at Maple and McNicoll, but it looks so different from this. Maybe I took my photo from around the corner. https://forums.botanicalgarden.ubc.ca/threads/kitsilano.36716/page-14#post-425642
Balsam Street, with a whole block of huge Schmitt Cherry trees in bloom (tiny flowers) is just two blocks west of the 'Akebono' that Yumi posted. They're so unusual, they're worth a trip. It's unlikely you'd know they were cherries without being told.
There are four 'Rancho' on West 16th at Arbutus, outside the Loblaw's City Market. Of the four, only one looks attractive. It appears to be grafted, yet the growth below what seems to be the graft line is also 'Rancho'. Three 'Akebono' trees on 16th at the church at Burrard are looking showy.