It turns out we have no thread of just 'Pink Perfection', and I have some photos. Though this name was used for a while (years) for trees that are really 'Kanzan', leading to no end of confusion, they are quite different in appearance from 'Kanzan'. Identification: - Kanzan vs Pink Perfection?? Large showy double pink blossoms, bronze leaves, late sea describes the differences in three excruciating pages of discovery. 'Pink Perfection' are delicate trees, a characteristic taken from their 'Shogetsu' parent. A double row of them will never form an arch over any road. @Ron B has described the flowers as looking like "like ice cream with their candy pink margins and white centers". Cherry scout Janet Morley used the term "raspberry swirl". Many flowers have the beginnings of a second-story flower in the centre. The stamens have little white flags on top (vexillate filaments).
Yes, this has always been a question that my husband and I had: how can you tell Pink Perfection from Kanzan because they are usually mistaken for each other. I told my husband that I think the Kanzan forms these almost "vine" like branches and assumes a table shape when mature while the Pink Perfection does not. Is this a good way to tell between the two? I have a couple of pictures each of what I thought is 'Kanzan' (Greenway parallel to Kingsway near Edmonds Stree) and 'Pink Perfection' (at High Gate Village, Edmonds) in our Burnaby neighbourhood:
These are 'Kanzan'. 'Pink Perfection' don't do bronze leaves! They also will never form a canopy over the street. It's harder to use that guide when you have young trees. Here you also have uniform pink colouring, unlike the ice cream swirl colouring in the photos above. You have to catch these things when the flowers are new, until you get the idea. In late season, colours are fading, and all these flowers get to look the same, pink fading to white, white aging to pink.
Oh, that's good to know. This means we haven't really seen a 'Pink Perfection'. I should see one live to see the difference, I guess. Thanks, Wendy!
