Note the previous two postings, where Willard and I have posted the same tree with different names. That's because I forgot that Ron B in 2009 suggested that an even darker pink one that is not there any more would be the 'Beni-shidare'. And I have indeed taken to naming the other one ito-zakura, a term for Prunus subhirtella var. pendula, which can be pink or white. Our Ornamental Cherries book says "The commercial cultivar 'Pendula' probably represents a number of similar seedling clones, and typically has light pink flowers." These are definitely commercial trees, so I guess the cultivar name 'Pendula' would be appropriate for this one.
The 'Beni-shidare' at Alexandra Park is minutes away from being in bloom. The Haywood Bandstand has just been refurbished. You can read a bit about it at Vancouver Icons: Alexandra Park, Haywood Bandstand.
I took one with a car too. :) This is such a quiet neighbourhood. Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha (Shirley moved to the boonies to get away from all the traffic). Maybe everyone was out walking. Actually, so many events have been cancelled, maybe there's no place to go. :(
Accolade at Chilco Park (Chilco and Comox) are looking great. Almost 70% in bloom. Only a few flowers on the ground (I love taking picture of fallen flowers). Lots of birds singing. Visit within 7 days.
So, cultivars in bloom in the West End right now are: 'Autumnalis Rosea', 'Accolade', 'Beni-shidare' and 'Pendula', 'Pandora' and 'Somei-yoshino', with 'Whitcomb' now finished. Here is the 'Pandora' just below Lagoon Drive in Stanley Park. You can see lots of flowers when you expand the first photo. It's an old tree; I think this is as good as it's going to get now, with all the witch's broom. And the 'Somei-yoshino' on Pendrell Street.
I have given this 'Akebono' a lot of play in this Ornamental Cherries thread: Identification: - What ornamental rootstock on this 'Akebono'?. I am very taken with the rootstock growth, which is so graceful with early blooming large flowers, yet so far, is said to be 'Akebono', same as the main part of the tree not yet in bloom. The crows seemed attracted to it today, lots of them. On Bidwell between Haro and Robson, on an apartment building front yard.
The 'Somei-yoshino' on Pendrell is in full bloom now. Flowers at around 3.5 cm are at the top of the normal range for these, but they seem large. You can see an 'Akebono' in the background with some flowers open.
Well, I should give this tree its due - it has gotten better than in that photo. Not great, but better. 'Sendai-shidare' on Comox has just a few flowers, but I was interested in the buds, found them surprisingly slender. I told this tree that it's the first in the West End to be in full bloom, but I think I told some other tree that yesterday.
The grove of Akebono at the entrance to Stanley Park at Chilco and Alberni promises to be gorgeous. It's already glowing pink on March 29, 2020.
@Anne Eng has posted some 'Mikuruma-gaeshi' flowers in Riley Park - not trees exactly in bloom, but enough flowers to make a nice photo. So I went to look at my local trees of that cultivar west of Denman - no flowers at all. But I am countering with a photo of 'Takasago' on Comox St west of Denman, also not in bloom, but just enough flowers to photograph. Speaking of not in bloom, this 'Shirotae' is close to being open. It's in the Chilco mini-park where the 'Accolade' are just finishing up their bloom.
My objective here is to get to some trees that need to be on the map. I started this walk in Devonian Harbour Park, which technically is in the Downtown neighbourhood, but I don't care. Today, it's part of my Stanley Park walk. This group along the bike path are an 'Akebono', an 'Accolade' and an 'Akebono'. The trees that @yaletowner put on the map from posting #479 have grown enough to be a festival favourite now, and they complement the trees on the other side of Georgia that @Nina Shoroplova posted two postings above this. I think this location has to be considered Stanley Park. The sculpture is Aerodynamic Forms in Space, sculpture by Rodney Graham, Devonian Harbour Park, Vancouver, Aerodynamic Forms in Space - Wikipedia. Now to the trees I really want to post: in the area where the three 'Somei-yoshino' are to the south of the overpass leading to the Lord Stanley statue are many 'Akebono' that were too little to be of much interest before, but they make a very impressive display now. In the first photo, I'm walking toward the rose garden; you can see 'Akebono' on the left and 'Somei-yoshino' on the right., more 'Akebono' in the background. The second photo is one nice little 'Akebono' on N. Lagoon Drive, at the underpass to Lost Lagoon. Now I'm approaching from the rose garden and N. Lagoon Drive. Those 'Akebono' are all in bloom. These 'Akebono' at the rose garden, a two minute's walk away, are not in bloom. Look for them in a week.
This posting are trees around home. Across the street and down the block is a new planting at a new rental building that blocks exactly half of my view of English Bay. These new 'Akebono' had better grow up to look very beautiful. They look like good trees and they are nicely arranged. Now if the landscape people will just resist pruning them... I'm sure I post this 'Shirotae' at the West End Community Centre every year. It's getting a few more dead branches every year, I'm sad to see. I like its trunk, twisting up to the right, as I claim that cherries do. 'Shirotae' at Lost Lagoon have not opened at all yet, but the buds are fat and white. These 'Umineko' at a condo on Robson west of Gilford are looking not very good, to say the least. They have finally opened up - it seems Marpole 'Umineko' were a week ahead of these. Yesterday I could see no colour on the branches of the 'Rancho' trees at the north tennis courts, above Lost Lagoon, but today, they were easy to see from a distance.
This group of trees are either on the Stanley Park pitch and putt, or next to it. Here is a not bad-looking 'Accolade' on the golf course near the 13th tee. This old 'Umineko' on the Ted and Mary Grieg Rhododendron Garden path has several droopy old branches that never seemed to have the right shape for this cultivar, but today I thought part of the tree shape on the left in the first photo seemed apt (sorry about there being another tree in front of it in the photo). The last photo shows the droopy branches that used to confuse me. A little farther along on the path is another 'Umineko' with witch's broom, and with a lot of suckers that are 'Umineko'. Yet one more old 'Umineko', the trunk left to re-establish itself on the golf course in the middle of a little island planting somewhere between the 13th and 15th tees. Here are the two 'Snow Goose' just inside the golf course along the rhody path. The second one is behaving a lot like the 'Akebono' I've been going on about that has rootstock growth so different from the older growth (in this case, not that much older - these were planted in 2009; they have grown so big though). The left side looks like rootstock growth (though I would have expected these to be low-grafted), has lots of leaves; the older side has no leaves open. Here is a good-looking 'Akebono' on the rhody path.
Back in the residential area, here is a planting of 'Shirotae' between two buildings called The Lions, with a diagonal path running from Broughton at Alberni down to Georgia. There used to be three tiers of 'Shirotae' here, but several have died. Two of the remaining ones look quite nice, and others fill in a bit. Park Board dudes, what did you think was going to happen when you planted a wide-spreading 'Shirotae' on this boulevard area? This is on Broughton at Barclay.
Here are 'Akebono' that were pruned last time I saw them - I'm sure I dissed them somewhere but can't find it now. They don't look so terrible on this corner of Georgia at Jervis, look not quite so good where the other group is at Bute. Here is a group of youngish trees that I found interesting, on Broughton at Rosemary Brown Lane. The three trees in bloom are all 'Akebono' - the lighter ones looked very white when I saw them - the pink that comes out in the photos was not evident at all. People are judging the white-looking spreading 5-petaled trees to be 'Somei-yoshino' based on their appearing white, but that doesn't work very well. After those pink 'Akebono' buds have opened to pink, they go white. When 'Somei-yoshino' are around next to 'Akebono', in the early blooming, 'Somei-yoshino' are more white. When those flowers age, they will turn pink while the 'Akebono' have the white appearance as seen here. You can see the three trees here; the tree with dots of flowers on the left is 'Takasago', not really open yet. Flowers belong to the tree in the foreground. Tree in the background: This 'Akebono' has been left to branch naturally. Here is a another nicely shaped 'Akebono' down the block at Broughton and Stovold Lane.
I forgot my uninspiring 'Spire' photos, but Anne Eng already used that line. Honestly, I thought of it way earlier. OK, it was obvious. This is as good as it ever looks. The flowers are ok, white with bronze leaves, and the leaves turn green, don't stay dark like the plums. It's hard to imagine why anyone thought this hybrid would be an improvement over its o-yama-zakura (Prunus sargentii) parent, which doesn't seem to need any improving, at least around here.
Hi Wendy, in writing about Stanley Park in Legacy of Trees, I followed the Park Board division of Devonian Harbour Park being separate from SP and didn't research it much. Anyhow, here's a photo I took from the Stanley Park Promenade over to the grove of Akebono in Devonian Park. What perfect weather for the VCBF!
I walked over to the Rose Garden today, but first, another photo of the group of newer 'Akebono' next to the Georgia St exit, where the bus stop is. The 'Akebono' trees at the Shakespeare Garden (the Rose Garden) are ready for viewing. They will lighten up in the next few days, but they look very nice now. Such different photos from usual, with no people. I like this one, because it looks a little more wild. The 'Shirotae' over near the Japanese Memorial are somewhat open - they will look better next weekend. I am standing near the 'Ojochin' - there are a couple of 'Akebono' planted there, which you can see on the right foreground. The 'Ojochin' is not open yet at all. I would expect it to open next week. These flower buds are supposed to have inspired the name, which means "large paper lantern". I don't know - maybe where they usually grow, it's warmer and the pedicels are longer.
Hi everyone, Here are a couple of photos of the 'Sendai-shidare', beside the underground parking entrance to 1949 Comox Street. It is so pretty. And there's another younger tree of the same cultivar in front of the right side of the same property. I didn't take photos because there were too many people chatting nearby.
Here is a little 'Akebono' planting on Alberni just west of Denman, not yet on our map. Over on Davie, in front of London Drugs, where there are several blocks of 'Kanzan', the city has planted two 'Akebono' trees. They're cherries, aren't they - "Kanzan', 'Akebono', both cherries, what's my problem? At least they are low-grafted. Other street trees - 'Takasago' on Comox Street, three or so per block the whole length of the street. They look pretty attractive from a distance on the 1900 block. There are three 'Takasago' on the west side of the rose garden in Stanley Park, which look marginally better: Here is a big old sweet cherry, Prunus avium, on Comox Street near Denman.
Here are the trees across from the Rose Garden four days ago. And a view looking back to the circle at the underpass, younger 'Akebono'. Here is the bridge leading to the 'Shirotae' grove at the Japanese Memorial, and here are the 'Somei-yoshino' that used to drape over the bridge. I thought there were two, looks like there were three. The 'Shirotae' grove is as beautiful as ever - it never was really overrun with people. And it's as fragrant as ever. On April 8, the 'Ojochin' was just starting to open.
The 'Ojochin' at the Japanese-Canadian War Memorial in Stanley Park has now blossomed, April 12, 2020. Amazing to think this tree has been growing here since around 1932.
Here's another 'Sendai-shidare', growing on the Chilco Street end of the Haro Street cul-de-sac close to Stanley Park. I should have taken a close up of the blossoms, but it was on my home first thing in the morning and I was hungry for my breakfast. Noticeable in the image are the several branches growing down toward the ground. I saw a thread of some photos of it taken in April 2008, when Douglas Justice didn't think it was a 'Sendai-shidare' but didn't say what else it might be: Identification: - Sendai-shidare - Single white blossoms, mid-season, pendulous Whatever its name, it's very pretty.
