It looks like I've decided to do yearly threads for these cherries in the Peter Wharton Cherry Grove next to the parking lot, as well as elsewhere in the garden. Here are some of the previous threads: Ornamental cherries at UBCBG was from 2015, I think from the year after they were planted. 2016/2017 photos are at Early Spring in the Botanical Garden - the Wharton Cherry Grove 2018 photos are at Ornamental Cherries at UBCBG 2018 You can query "cherry" in this Talk about UBC Botanical Garden sub-forum to find the rest. @Willard posted the first photos of the UBC 'Whitcomb' cherries this year, from January 11, in the UBC thread. That's at least a month and a bit earlier than they should be open. On January 28 this year, two trees definitely looked "in bloom", while the third had almost no open flowers. I didn't look carefully enough to note if the buds were still closed enough to withstand the promised Arctic blast next week - there is a chance that the unopen tree will be able to bloom at its normal time, while these over-excited ones would have spent all their flowers already. The whiter flowers are older - they fade as they age, so there is usually a nice mix of colours. I should note that these photos are a bit misleading as to the flower size - the early flowers are small, less than 2cm in diameter.
They withstood the Arctic blast. These 'Whitcomb' have been blooming for 10 weeks already. They probably would have provided a showier splash of colour if the blooming time were more compressed, but it has been nice to see some colour for so long during the winter. These photos are from yesterday.
There was a bit of a hiatus there after the 'Whitcomb' finished blooming, though 'Shirotae' in the grove have come and gone and 'Umineko' flowers are senescing. Here is 'Umineko'. The centres are red because the flowers are old. Flowers on all these cherries do that. I thought everything would have come and gone by the time Douglas Justice does his Tree Talk & Walk next week for the VCBF, Saturday, April 20, starting right here in the Peter Wharton Cherry Grove at 10am (the walk is free, and you are all invited to come). But no, still to come are 'Ojochin', 'Asagi' and 'Kizakura' (in our book as 'Ukon' and 'Gyoiko'). And the new 'Ichiyo', see below. They might be perfect next week. Here is 'Ojochin'. And I just found a new 'Ichiyo' over near the parking lot entrance. It's pretty big for a new tree, and it looks low grafted, so not one of the trees on its own roots, is that right? I have to say, though, that there should be two of them, not for any botanical reason, but because that's how it's done in Vancouver. 'Ichiyo' are planted in pairs. I posted the 'Tai-haku' along Marine Drive in the Ubc thread. Here is a view from my car in the parking lot.
Wendy, here is a closer shot of the Tai-haku cherries that line Marine Drive just outside the garden entrance. Some of the Ojochin cherries were in full bloom while others were about a week away from looking great.
That is not right. Douglas Justice told us on his walk today for the VCBF that the 'Ichiyo' is on its own roots, is one that he grew from a cutting. And it has been here since last year. I am embarrassed to report that right next to the 'Ichiyo' are two other trees that Douglas swears have also been here since last year. Here is 'Mikuruma-gaeshi', a cultivar I like a lot, with such large beautiful flowers, on such ungainly trees in town. There aren't a lot of them on the city streets, and about half of the ones there were were cut down a few years ago, so it is exciting to see these beautiful flowers on a beautiful tree. Next to the tree above is a 'Pandora'. There used to be four very fine-looking examples of these in the front yard of a house in town, but they were topped last year and now look terrible. There wasn't even a view or power lines to create a need for topping them. Anyway, it's exciting to see this one, even if I did miss the flowers. I have a lot of trouble believing that I missed seeing this in flower, right here. I think Douglas is messing with my mind. We stopped to look at the Birch Bark Hybrid Cherry (I missed hearing exactly what Douglas is calling it - Nadia and I have insisted that it is not exactly like Birch Bark Cherries, and it was finally decided that it is a hybrid). The flowers are just opening now, but they are small and not all that visible. These flowers also do not have the very many long stamens that hang below the very small petal skirt that Birch Bark Cherries usually have. The 'Ukon' and 'Gyoiko' are not yet open, I was surprised to see. Buds were dropping from the 'Gyoiko', with no evident explanation. Douglas thought maybe there would not be flowers this year, but there were some buds that are opening. I wonder if it really is just behind the 'Ukon' by a week.
The 'Ukon' and 'Gyoiko' are both open now. Here is 'Ukon' ('Asagi' label), showing some green stripes that are exciting people this year (see Identification: - Is this 'Ukon' or 'Gyoiko'?). The flowers seem smaller than on most 'Ukon' trees. Here is the 'Gyoiko' ('Kizakura' label), seem like much smaller flowers, more green than on the 'Ukon', and one flower with a hint of the red striping that is so striking in Anne Eng's photo from a tree in Japan, posted in that thread just linked to, posting #8.
I missed the flowers on the new 'Pandora', but I caught the fruits, does that count? I'm not expecting them to get larger than this or to even hang around to get ripe. I wonder. Prunus maackii are usually grown for their shiny orange bark, which I have photographed before. The flowers are not very showy, more like bird cherries. @Egan Davis told me that one of these trees kept falling over, so has been replaced with a smaller one, moved slightly.
I noticed some tiny cherries on a 'Shirotae' near where I live, wondered if the UBCBG tree had any. Yes it does, not a lot, but we saw around 10 without looking too hard.
