Well, I thought I was joking, but what's with the 'Amanogawa' being open when 'Akebono' and 'Takasago' are still in bloom? The first two are next to the Tea Merchant west of Burrard on Georgia (in a pathway that goes through to Grosvenor Plaza). Well, at least here, the 'Akebono' have finished. And only one of the three 'Amanogawa' trees is open. But two blocks away, outside the liquor store on Bute and Alberni, the same cultivar is opening up as well (third and fourth photos). This is not looking good for my April 27 walk. Even the park trees that usually open later than others are not following that rule by much this year. Here's a single 'Takasago' on Bidwell at Robson, in full bloom. It looks nice enough now, looks horrible the rest of the year. On the same block, across the street, is the 'Akebono' with the unidentified ornamental rootstock (more photos posted in What ornamental rootstock on this 'Akebono'? in the Ornamental Cherries forum). Note the markedly horizontal rootstock growth with the green leaves.
This photo is too good not to post. It was taken by Gino Pezzani, who was on my meetup group Easter Parade Cherry Blossom Walk on March 31. It's from 1200 Alberni, at Bute. He said "One of the reasons my client bought a condo in there was because of the Cherry trees."
Stanley Park's grove of 'Shirofugen' trees are in bloom near the Japanese Memorial and Lumbermen's Arch, April 24, 2013.
Here are two more photos of the 'Shirofugen' grove in Stanley Park. They were taken during our wonderful walk with Wendy.
I've made this spot a festival favourite for 'Shirofugen' - only two of them on this side of Beach Avenue at the foot of Thurlow, but the view of English Bay has to count for something. It's a little close to the road and the Aquatic Centre, but still not a bad picnic spot, and there's another 'Shirofugen' right across the street. At the seawall down from Jervis St, there used to be three 'Shirofugen'. One was removed for some sort of work, so three new ones were planted. Not a good trade. These were a joke from the get-go. It doesn't seem necessary in a park to plant things grafted high onto poles. In contrast is this nice 'Shirofugen' in the front yard of a condo building on Pendrell west of Thurlow. It's been posted several times before, when it provided a good comparison to a companion 'Shogetsu', except that that tree died last year and was removed. This one seems to be either not grafted or low grafted and seems healthy.
Some very early sightings. While there are a few leaves hanging onto the Shirofugen in the apartment building grounds at Beach and Thurlow, on the opposite side of the road just east of the Aquatic Centre, the Accolades are starting to blossom. Last year it was late February when the first petals showed on these trees. Then up the Thurlow hill, on the lane behind Burnaby, the Autumnalis is pretty well in full bloom but I don't think that is very unusual. Unfortunately today's picture doesn't do justice to the Accolades because it was so overcast and I needed a ladder!
Yes you're right, it would be Autumnalis Rosea. Last season, the first picture of this tree was posted on January 1, 2013 by Wendy Cutler.
'Autumnalis Rosea', this year's version of the same trees. The first is at the same building as the one Sue posted in November. It's a hostel on Burnaby St at Thurlow; this is at the front of the building. The ones at the lane that have showed up here most years are behind the building. There used to be a couple in containers on the level above the garage as well, but they don't seem to be there now. These are at the co-op on the north side of Pacific west of Burrard. They're almost looking showy this year.
Here are some shots I took yesterday of the 'Autumnalis Rosea' at Lost Lagoon in Stanley Park. There was a hummingbird in the tree, but it took off before I could take any photos of it. I've also attached some photos of the Viburnum for Wendy.
Thanks, Meighan. You would not believe how many people tell me about the cherries on Lagoon Drive, which are really the Viburnum bodnantense. Those are the last three of Meighan's photos.
Whitcomb on Nelson Street in West End Whitcomb on Nelson & Bute and Nelson & Jervis Streets in West End
Yes! 'Whitcomb' trees are really open in the West End. These two trees on Nicola at Beach have been reported before, probably every year. It's a pretty good location for photos.
I never would have thought to even look to see if these pendula trees were in bloom, but they showed up as in bloom on the festival map. That would be the dates from last year and I saw no need to even look at changing them yet. I was embarrassed that all these trees were showing up that were clearly not in bloom, but thought I'd better have a look. Well, by golly, they are in bloom - the pinky white ito-zakura (the name we're using in the new version of our book, what we used to call pendula or shidare-zakura) are both pretty much open, and the darker pink 'Beni-shidare' is partly open. The double 'Yae-beni-shidare' has no open flowers. [Edited] I meant to say that I'm really annoyed to see leaves on these ito-zakura. I just finished telling the scouts that for sure, no cherries in bloom now have leaves. Well, these trees are not likely to be in bloom now in the rest of the city, but then neither are the plums, which are just about in full bloom all over the West End. Down Thurlow at Beach, two of the 'Accolade' trees are in full bloom and looking very nice. Across the street and around the corner, others of them are not more than about one-third open. I'd have thought it was the shade on the later ones, but two 'Accolade' on Burnaby St that get almost no sun have more flowers open. The ones down at the Chilco mini-park are not looking good yet. It's very hard to come up with blooming dates by neighbourhood for the map when trees of the same cultivar don't bloom at the same time, even on the same block. I certainly don't want to get more specific than neighbourhood for setting the dates.
Dingren posted a photo of some 'Pandora' flowers opening in Richmond. Yesterday I also thought of 'Pandora' and walked over to see the one I liked next to the Park Board office parking lot near the heronry, but it's gone. Such a sweet tree, very healthy, not in anyone's way. It was pretty special - one of only two I know of (knew of) in the park. The second photo was posted in this thread in 2012.
No, there are not any of them on the 1100 block of Pendrell now. They've been replaced by two cherries that might be 'Akebono' and the rest Acer macrophylla. That's really annoying because I listed that location in our cherry book and didn't know that the trees were gone. And it's also annoying because they weren't terrible trees - not nearly as bad as most of the 'Takasago' in the West End, except for the best one of those, which was removed to make way for the new bike lane.
On April 5, I led a festival walk around the West End and there were not more than a blossom or two on 'Mikuruma-gaeshi' or 'Sendai-shidare'. Yesterday, three days later, both cultivars are fully open. Here are 'Mikuruma-gaeshi', first on Haro at Chilco, and on Pendrell and Chilco. All of this cultivar have been removed east of Denman. These are the 'Sendai-shidare' on Haro at Chilco, and then on Comox east of Chilco. The 'Shirotae' at the West End Community Centre is fully open; it's such a nice tree, snuggled in between the building and the dumpsters.
Two festival favourites seen on Bill Stephen's Stanley Park walk last Saturday - the 'Akebono' grove at the Rose Garden and the allée of 'Shirotae' at the Japanese Memorial. 'Ichiyo' and 'Ukon' are open now in the West End. I've decided to do my festival Easter Parade in the West End on Sunday. These trees had better hold on to those flowers.
Well, it did not rain on my Easter Parade today, though it poured just before it and earlier in the day, so we had a very manageable number of people. Dingren helped me lead the walk and made up a list of 17 cultivars we were going to see for people to check off as they saw them. These photos are from my test walk two days ago. I don't know if it was in this thread or the Snow Goose thread in which bewailed the loss of two of the young 'Snow Goose' at Ceperley Meadow to beavers. Fortunately, almost all of these are low grafted - here is one of them fighting back. Unfortunately, the rootstock is also fighting back. At the trunk in the last photo, the 'Snow Goose' (with flowers) is on the left; avium is on the right, with the scalloped leaf edges. The 'Ukon'-like trees inside the golf course are in full bloom. We seem to have decided they're 'Gyoiko', the same as the one outside. So they're our treasured rare (over here) trees, all but one completely covered with ivy, with just a few branches of cherry flowers. This is the 'Gyoiko' outside the golf course, probably not five open flowers on the whole tree. Speaking of the same trees not blooming at the same time, here is a 'Shirofugen' on Cardero at Comox, where I used to live, completely in bloom on the east (actually southeast) side of the building. The second photo is the 'Shirofugen' on Comox at Cardero, around the corner, on the southwest side, not open yet. Yesterday I passed a single 'Shirofugen' posted in previous years that was open on the southeast side of the tree, not open on the southwest side. That's a mazzard cherry in the background of the first photo. There are several on every block. Some of them used to be fancy cultivars. Some of them were planted (not deliberabely) by passers-by. Also not open yet is this 'Shirofugen' at the Sylvia Hotel at Beach and Gilford. It's hard for me to believe that I've left a tree unposted; I'm sure I've seen this before. I need a photo for the map, so I'm posting this one of it not in bloom yet.
And just around the corner from the Gyoiko is Shujaku. Such a marvellous walk through glorious towering rhododendrons to a first-time view for me. The tree in all its pinkness stands alone in a bed near the stone bridge which was guarded by Canada geese. The flowers were too high for me to get a good close-up. Looks as if the petals don't have the red stain yet so maybe we can enjoy its spectacle for a while longer before the flowers fall. What a contrast to the Gyoiko. How wonderful if they were planted beside each other and the branches mingled....
Now I've seen the Kiku-zakura on Robson between Guildford and Chilco. Glad the book pointed it out as a different cultivar because I wouldn't have distinguished it from a Kanzan. There are lots Kanzans nearby but on close inspection, which I tired to do, the Kiku-zakura's leaves are greener and the blossoms fuller. Today most of the Kanzans are at the end of their glory and making beautiful pink carpets on the grass but the Kiku-zakura blossoms are hanging on.
I've seen this 'Shirofugen' before, what I thought was a single tree between the Queen Charlotte Apartments on the corner of Nicola and Pendrell and the (relatively) new building on the property that used to be owned by the building, just to the west on Pendrell. Today I noticed another very floriferous 'Shirofugen' inside the courtyard. An owner let me in to photograph it. First two photos are the tree at the street, showing a bit of the second tree behind; other two are the second tree. There are two other early cherries that I don't remember seeing before.
