I have noticed some cherry trees are in bloom, while others just yards away have just started or haven't quite bloomed yet. Does anyone know why?
Do you think they are the same type of cherry? Some start blooming in February, and others don't bloom until the last week of April or beginning of May. Our Ornamental Cherries in Vancouver book is organized by blooming date. All of the early season cherries have bloomed now, and we're half-way along with the mid-season cherries. For anyone following the new edition of the book, we're up to 'Shirotae'; they've been nice and orderly so far.
Wendy do you have a favorite early blooming ( cherry or plum ) variety? Also, could some of the flowering cherries be plums? Thanks
Fine ocean parker, I'm not sure I understand the question. Favourite if I were growing it, or favourite to look at? I really like 'Accolade' and 'Pandora' to look at. If I were planting an early cherry, I would want to plant an ungrafted 'Pandora'. Star Cherry is very pretty too, and it's just next after the early ones. Do you mean are people calling the cherries plums? Yes, the blocks and blocks of pink and/or white flowered trees with trunks that twist and lack the horizontal lenticels of the cherries, that come out before the 'Akebono' that are out now - those are plums. The trees that the newspapers show in photos every year and call cherries - those are usually plums, because those articles are in the paper before the cherry season really gets going and it's the street after street of plums that they're seeing. There are a few blocks with 'Whitcomb' and 'Accolade' early cherries, but only a few, and not more than a single block in any one area.