Following up on a posting Douglas Justice made in 2012 in the Vancouver Cherry Blog, see Propagating the Rare Cherry Trees of Vancouver, here are some of the first plantings at UBCBG, mostly on the lawn next to the parking area. I took these photos a week ago; the ones in bud should be open now. Prunus subhirtella 'Whitcomb' This is the first cherry to bloom, and all our cherries have or have had flowers now, so it's surprising that there are any flowers to photograph. The white flowers were pink in their prime. Prunus 'Umineko' 'Snow Goose', from the same parents and looking identical, has pretty well replaced 'Umineko' in new plantings in Vancouver. I've been saying if the trees are young, they're 'Snow Goose'. Now it seems, we're about to get 'Umineko' back in town. I like the idea of trying to compare ones of the same age, but not the idea of trying to identify these trees we see without nametags. These bloomed in Vancouver several weeks ago. Prunus Sato-zakura Group 'Shirotae' These are also mostly finished in Vancouver. Prunus Sato-zakura Group 'Surugadoi-nioi' The original tree probably came in as 'Shirotae'. It has huge sepals like 'Shirotae', but single flowers. There was some reason we decided it wasn't Oshima Cherry. Prunus Sato-zakura Group 'Ojochin' This is from the tree at the Japanese Memorial in Stanley Park. I am so happy to see this. Prunus Sato-zakura Group 'Ukon' This is from a tree that has flowers with more green than other 'Ukon', to which we gave the name 'Asagi' for a while, but there was little agreement about whether that really exists as a separate cultivar. It would be interesting to see a young tree from an 'Ukon' that did not show that colouring, grown in the same conditions. Prunus Sato-zakura Group 'Gyoiko' This is from the tree in the Stanley Park rhododendron garden, outside the maintenance yard. We called that 'Kizakura' for a while, finally decided we had the real deal for 'Gyoiko'. I don't seem to have got a habit photo in focus. Prunus serrula, Birch Bark Cherry This tree looked to me different enough from Birch Bark Cherries I've seen that I had to ask what it was. The flowers are almost twice as large as ones I know, so the stamens don't stick out beneath the petals as much, and the bark is not all that shiny. Douglas wrote in an email to me:
Re: Ubc It is new tree at the UBC garden entrance. Birch Bark cherry looks very unusual with large white wide open flowers.
Good call, Ron. I know Wendy and Nadia had their doubts as well. The tree in question was grown from seed collected from our Prunus serrula in the garden. While I would normally never assign a species name to seedlings derived from garden-collected seed, in this case I assumed that our little group of P. serrula all originated from the same source (Washington Park Arboretum, planted in 1986). And as there were no other cherries flowering at the same time within about a kilometer, I assumed that the source of pollen was one of the three P. serrula seedlings in the group. Further, as the seedlings derived from the seed I collected were all pretty much similar with respect to shiny, peeling bark, I assumed that my first two assumptions were correct (the point of the exercise was to look for bacterial canker resistance in P. serrula seedlings). Unfortunately, I never thought to compare the flowers on the parent trees. One doesn't need to be familiar with Ockham's razor to see that I was on shaky ground with so many assumptions. Now that I'm actually looking at the flowers (I don't know how I missed them before), it's clear that there is a single, original P. serrula, with a couple of trees that have grown up directly adjacent, both with peeling, but rough stems. I had assumed seedling variation because each of the trees was labeled P. serrula. Clearly they were from bird-dropped (hybrid) seeds. I recall that there used to be a P. sargentii 'Sir Edwin Muller' about 10 m away. It had been in place since 1989, but was removed about 2002. The flowers on the two trees next to the P. serrula are about 2 cm across (a little smaller than those of P. sargentii), pink in bud (always white for P. serrula) and the leaves are clearly intermediate between the two species. So, the plant in question is likely at least 75% P. serrula. The moral of the story is to never trust labels and check your assumptions. I've been telling people for years that garden-collected seed is invariably hybrid seed. I should have listened. On the other hand, it's an attractive plant that looks a lot like a birch-bark cherry when not in flower and that seems to have bacterial canker resistance.
I had a question about one of the trees snuggled up to the original Prunus serrula in this thread: What cherry is growing with the Prunus serrula? Ron said it was rootstock growth, but if so, it was clearly not avium rootstock. Do you get to name the one next to the shop now?
A birch-bark cherry with showy flowers would be worthwhile, in fact nurseries have grafted Japanese flowering cherries onto birch-bark trunks for years. Of course, this doesn't work as the birch bark does not extend throughout the resulting specimen. However, if the UBC seedling does not flower more profusely later in the bloom cycle (or life cycle of the tree) then it will not really be producing the desired effect either.
Here are a few comparison flower photos: From the tree (or one of the trees) that's next to the original serrula, and the new serrula (two photos from Sue Wagner today). The unknown one (first photo) has narrower petals and they're notched, and longer pedicels; some flowers in groups of three. On the new one, petals overlap when the flower is completely open, forming a star. (An unrelated) Serrula at King Edward and Valley (photo from Sue Wagner in 2008), showing how small the petals are compared with the long stamens that show out from underneath the petals, and also green calyx, vs. the petals on the new serrula, on which the stamens are not visible beneath the petals, and reddish calyx.
Here are a few more baby pictures, from the same trees as in the first posting, taken six days ago already. 'Ojochin' 'Ukon' Hmm. I checked to be sure this is from the 'Ukon' and not the 'Gyoiko'. I think the parent of this is the one that started the Not-a-Ukon thread in Ornamental Cherries. Asagi, Kizakura, Gyoiko and Ukon - Greenish white doubles, bronze leaves, mid-season 'Gyoiko'
