The last time early cherries in the Wharton Grove were posted was in 2021. That year, 'Whitcomb' cherries were about 20% open on February 5, and they were fully open showing good colour from some distance on March 4. In 2020, they were showing some colour on February 12. In 2019, the photo that looks somewhat like today's was taken January 28. I am having a difficult time this year figuring out if what I am seeing on 'Whitcomb' is as peak as we are going to get. 'Whitcomb' have a long bloom period, as much as 6 weeks from when they first appear to be in bloom until all the buds open by the end of March. This year, there are hardly any 'Whitcomb' offering a splash of colour, and while there are pink buds, there are not enough buds to give the impression that the splash of colour is coming. It looks more like most buds didn't make it through the January freeze. These Wharton Grove trees are looking pretty good relative to other trees of this cultivar seen or reported to me. There are lots of open flowers, but they are sparse and somewhat deformed, and it doesn't appear that there are a lot of flowers yet to open. The areas with no flowers do not give a pink impression. I'm not certain, but I don't think they will be looking better than this. The nearby 'Accolade' is the farthest from blooming I have seen in Vancouver. Many of the 'Accolade' around town have a bloom appearance similar to the 'Whitcomb' trees above, but with a lot of good-looking buds. I thought this has a lot of good-looking buds, but I am surprised that there is not more pink showing.
I think the 'Whitcomb' "failed" this year, interrupted by that cold snap. I'm seeing the same thing with a number of other spring bloomers. The 'Accolade' has picked up now.
I caught the 'Accolade' yesterday, at least the tree. I only had time for one blossom photo. It's perfect time to see it now. I saw a Facebook posting last week of the 'Surugadai-nioi, so we rushed over to see it just before the gates closed. The name indicates that it's fragrant, and I think when I first saw the parent tree many years ago, I did find that fragrant, but I didn't notice anything yesterday. It might be time to correct the spelling on the label. The Garden Explorer spelling is correct. [Edited April 16, 2024] Douglas Justice told me last weekend that he has re-identified this tree as Oshima-zakura. The three 'Umineko' are looking their finest. The 'Pandora' is roped off by some tape, so no blossom photo for this.
Douglas Justice's blog for April is all about the trees in the Peter Wharton Cherry Grove. The big news for me, once I reread the article, is that I didn't need to take 140 photos of the tree still labelled 'Ito-kukuri' today, because Douglas now refers to the "trio of 'Ojochin' ", where there were two 'Ojochin' and an 'Ito-kukuri'. I'm not the only one who will be happy to learn this. Here are the trio of 'Ojochin'. The middle tree has a section that is looking not so well. Behind the 'Ojochin' is an 'Ukon', with a new label that says so. It's not really in bloom yet, though there are a lot of flowers open. The yellow colour is convincing with the white 'Ojochin' in the background. The 'Gyoiko' still has the 'Kizakura' label. It has even fewer flowers in bloom now than the 'Ukon'. I've reached my photo limit here - more in the next posting.
Douglas Justice in his blog (link is in previous posting) mentions the crazy blooming schedule this year, which I've been calling "everything is blooming all at once". 'Accolade' is an early season cherry that usually appears in late February or March and should never make the acquaintance of the late season 'Ukon', 'Ichiyo' and 'Gyoiko'. For sure it's past its prime, but the colour is plenty visible from a distance. 'Ichiyo' is just opening now. 'Mikuruma-gaeshi' is fully open, flowers have lost their delicate pink colour. Prunus maackii flower buds are just showing a bit of white. The other big news for me from the blog was the planting of five 'Pink Perfection' "spanning both sides of the fence west of the Panabode Building (the old Botanical Garden entrance)." I ran into @Lisa L, who told me that was at the north side of the North Garden, and some man with a key directed me from the totally wrong gate to the farthest northeast corner. Who even knew there is an exit there?! I could have used that so many times. Anyway, on the other side of the building at that exit gate, are three 'Pink Perfection'. And outside the fence are two more. I ran into Linda Jones, who will be doing cherry walks at VanDusen for Sakura Days, so she came with me to see the trees. They just have puffy buds now, with one flower half open. They look like they might be beautiful trees - another "who knew?". The first photo is the Panabode Building. These are the 'Tai-haku' along the outside fence. There are six now - you can see that every second tree has been removed - they seem like a good distance apart now. These are grafted trees - the plan is to replace them with trees on their own roots.
A week later, April 13, for Douglas Justice's ornamental cherry walk for UBCBG, all the cultivars not yet in bloom on my previous visits were open. Starting with the most exciting for me, the 'Pink Perfection' trees are still a little awkward-looking - we're interested to see what their ultimate shapes will be - but the flowers are beautiful. These little trees are poster children for the cultivar as described by Wybe Kuitert in Japanese Flowering Cherries, Timber Press, Portland Oregon, 1999, pp. 110-114): disorderly shape of the young tree, young foliage colour intermediate between the green of 'Shogetsu' and the bronze of 'Kanzan', imperfect petals in the heart, stamens with a filament longer than the anther (ibid, p. 120). Many of the petal edges are fimbriate, like those of its 'Shogetsu' parent. The 'Ichiyo' was fully open. I like these so much when the new flowers are a coral pink, was not so interested to photograph them now that they've turned white. [Edited]When I wrote this, I was trying to figure out why I had no photos. But I did photograph the flowers, first thing that day, before Douglas's Nitobe walk. I've posted them below, in posting #8. 'Mikuruma-gaeshi' flowers are still hanging on, and we were allowed to get close enough to see them. The 'Pandora' is way finished flowering, but there were lots of little fruits, which are supposed to drop off before developing further. Prunus maackii flowers are open. 'Gyoiko' photos are coming in the next posting.
Here are the trio of 'Ojochin', with the 'Ukon' behind them, to the right of the blue sign. At the time, the golden colour of the 'Ukon' was very evident from a distance. It's more evident in the thumbnail photo than when you expand it. By contrast, from the same vantage point, here is the 'Gyoiko', the tree on the left; 'Umineko' is on the right, with hardly any flowers remaining. The 'Gyoiko' flowers are really open now. I have not adjusted the colour on these photos; that's not exactly the same as claiming that the colour presented by my phone camera is accurate. The tree seems to be in better health than in previous years. Only one area has the smaller constricted growth that made me anxious previously. Douglas explained that the smaller flowers on the one 'Ojochin' are the result of stress caused by a lower trunk injury. Now that two of the trees are determined to be 'Ojochin', the stressed tree may be removed.
I thought that was the case, since I wasn't finding any photos. But I did photograph the 'Ichiyo' flowers, first thing, before going to the Nitobe walk. And they only looked all white from a distance. Here's the tree again, and the blossoms.
'Gyoiko' and 'Ukon' again, from April 18. Here is another tree colour comparison, 'Gyoiko' first. Well, as I look at the thumbnails, it's not so impressive, but they looked quite different on site. They are both doing the occasional extra sepal, 'Gyoiko' first, then two 'Ukon'. The 'Gyoiko' colouring was looking pretty convincing. Here are 'Ukon' flowers. Prunus maackii were fully open now.
I don't think I've overdone 'Pink Perfection' photos at all. Maybe these will overdo it. The first two trees are inside the fence. These are outside the fence.
