This is not a question, but comments and corrections are very welcome. This is a relatively small umbrella-shaped tree with fully double white blossoms with finely fringed edges. The blossoms hang two or three to a bunch on very long stems. The leaves are green and emerge with the flowers. This is one of the last cherries to bloom.
From the sublime to ... . Douglas's photos are so beautiful, and here I'm going to display these rotting blossoms to demonstrate how white they stay as they decompose on the tree. I had to look hard to find the ones with the pink centres, as so many of the flowers seemed to be drying up and shriveling before they turned colour.
Here are two 'Shogetsu' not in BC, both unusually good looking, and both blooming unusually late. The first one is past its peak on May 22, 2011, on Camano Island, WA. These two trees at Menucha, a retreat centre about 21 miles east of Portland, OR, give the impression of being a single tree. They are hard to see, but all the white blossoms in the photo belong to them. On May 24, they were at peak bloom, which was a week or two later than the 'Shogetsu' finished blooming in Vancouver.
These are both 'Shogetsu'? They both open white, have frilly petal edges and exceedingly long stems. They both have green leaves, though there's a slight bronze tinge to the leaves of the first one. These trees at the Bayshore possibly get more sun, but just morning sun. The colour of the buds is intense pink, and the colour variation on the opening blossoms is beautiful. I've gone back and forth on whether these trees are 'Shirofugen' or 'Shogetsu', but at this point when the leaves and blossoms are coming out, it's clear they lack the heavy bronze aspect of 'Shirofugen'. You can really see that this tree is a parent of 'Pink Perfection' - it's as if there were a new cultivar called 'White Perfection'. This tree in a lane south of Davie at Cardero, quite shaded by two taller trees, has a lovely very subtle dusky rose colour to the buds. There's very little of the contrasting pink to the outside petals.
In spite of what I said in posting #3, it seems that at times these flowers do also stay on the tree and turn pink, as Jessica Tremblay, the festival's blogger, shows in her Shogetsu - end of season posting (and Ron B mentioned in a posting somewhere). Jessica had posted the same tree earlier in the season (Shogetsu vs Shirofugen), when it appeared clearly to be this cultivar. As I often mention to the scouts, half the trick is catching the trees at the stage when you can tell what they are and documenting them then.
