What a confused year it is! 'Pandora' and 'Beni-shidare' are just about to pop in Kitsilano and the West End/Stanley Park neighbourhoods, and 'Accolade' are not looking their best here in the West End. Yet in other areas, we're still waiting for 'Whitcomb', and 'Accolade' have just about caught up with them, both ready to put on a show, whether or not there's any end to the on-and-off snow and hail episodes. I've noticed in two neighbourhoods, whole-street plantings have bloomed ahead of single trees nearby. I mentioned the 'Whitcomb' street trees at 59th and Prince Edward last week in the Sunset Blog. Yesterday, I saw a two-block stretch of 'Accolade' on Charles west of Garden mostly in bloom, yet a single 'Accolade' not far away on Nanaimo was not nearly as far along. Maybe it's an illusion - there's more colour from the group. Thanks to Janet Gabites for all the photos in this posting. At the Scout Orientation last weekend, one of the novice scouts expressed with some certainty that she wouldn't be finding any new cultivars. Well, scouts, don't be so sure. That 'Fudan-zakura' that Anne Eng found last year is in bloom now. At the time, there was just nothing in our book that said anything about cherries with single white blossoms being in bloom in the early season. There's really nothing to say when you're looking at something like that but "Huh"? And then post it as a "What cherry?" question in the Ornamental Cherries forum.
