I was doing some shopping in Steveston couple of days ago and spotted a small stand of cherry trees in Fisherman's Park down by the Cannery and was struck by the combination of 2 different types and colours of flowers on the same branch! Some branches were mostly pink, others mostly white but a few branches show what you see here. So, wassup?
Nice, Pieter. May I use your photo in our thread: https://forums.botanicalgarden.ubc.ca/threads/magical-two-tone-trees.102176/? Most of the ornamental cherries here are grafted onto Prunus avium, mazzard or sweet cherry, which is generally more robust than the scion (the ornamental cultivar on top). Mazzard cherries produce lots of suckers from the trunk, when the trees are high-grafted, or from the roots, and when these are not cut off, they eventually take over the tree. You have also probably also seen streets that have a line of trees that go pink-pink-pink-pink-white-pink-pink. The white one almost certainly started out pink, but the mazzard cherry won. It happens with earlier cherries too, but it's so easy to see when the single white blossoms contrast with the dark pink double flowers. There's quite a nice collection in that thread. In case you think the white and pink are on the same branch, I'm pretty comfortable saying that a closer look will show you that the branches are just intertwined. You can see that the leaves are different as well - bronze leaves with the pink flowers, green leaves with the white flowers, and the leaf margins are different on the two (I can't see that, but I know it's the case). Cherry scout @tknd and I spent some time tracing the branches on one tree that had just a few clusters of pink left; we were sure the pink clusters were surprisingly on the mostly white branches, but it turned out not to be the case. Maybe Taka has a photo.
Wendy fill your boots, use my picture with attribution. I'll walk back there tomorrow and have another, closer look.... and indeed I kinda figured it would have something to do with possible grafting.
This picture nicely illustrates the crossing point of 2 branches with different flowers. Trying to look at them from a higher vantage point -the stand of trees is in a bit of a gully- just gives the wrong perspective and therefor the wrong impression. Wendy you're welcome to use this picture as well!
Thanks, Pieter. I've edited the post in the Magical two-tone thread to add this photo. I used the @ before your handle, but I'm not sure that works as a notification in an edit. I think it does not, but I'd like to know if you did get a notification.
Here is a 'Kanzan'/avium combo I saw today at Fraser Cemetery in New Westminster. The avium part has finished flowering, so it's not so obvious - you might think that the tree just didn't have many flowers this year, unless you notice all the finished flowers with just their sepals remaining, or with some developing fruits. The tree is actually top grafted; there are suckers from the bottom part of the trunk (and maybe from the ground), and a new one starting on the ground. You can see the darker 'Kanzan' trunk in the centre of the second photo.
@Willard and I found a similar tree in Gibsons with just a few clusters of 'Kanzan' remaining, posted at https://forums.botanicalgarden.ubc.ca/threads/sunshine-coast-gulf-islands.95067/page-24#post-443791. We traced the 'Kanzan' clusters back to one small limb among many limbs from the root stock.
