West End / Stanley Park

I think we changed his mind. It's on our map as 'Sendai-shidare'.

 

There's a charming row of six young 'Akebono' (at least, I think they are 'Akebono') between Lumberman's Arch and the concession stand that's there. Clearly there were seven of them originally. I will mark them on the Neighbourhood Map once this post goes live.

 

West End 'Kanzan' have arrived. I got scolded by a pedestrian for stopping here to take this picture, on Bute at Nelson.

 

Happy birthday 'Shirotae' for @Douglas Justice on Tuesday. These trees at Lost Lagoon and near the 'Gyoiko' on the Grieg Rhododendron Garden path in Stanley Park are still in excellent shape, both the trees and their flowers.


The 'Gyoiko' is starting to open, looking so golden on Sunday afternoon.


Very nearby, between the pedestrian and bike paths, is the 'Shujaku', at peak bloom now.

 

In the West End, the 'Kiku-zakura' is starting to open.


Over on Pendrell west of Denman are I think nine 'Mikuruma-gaeshi', six of them in the 1900 block. I'm surprised their flowers are still looking so good.

 

"The 'Gyoiko' is starting to open, looking so golden on Sunday afternoon."
Hey Wendy, Any chance we could meet in Stanley Park early one morning, later in the week, perhaps at the Pooh Corner entrance, and you could show me where these are? I looked for them yesterday, unsuccessfully.
The Shujaku is lovely. The perfect week for it. So many people are out in the park enjoying everything that this spring has to offer.

 

Nina, here are instructions so anyone can find it: from the 'Shujaku' (easy to find this right now - only pink tree in the median between the bike and walking paths right where the path goes north, toward Robson, from Ceperley meadow), walk just a bit north, away from Ceperley meadow, turn right where there is a path that leads to the golf course maintenance yard. The 'Gyoiko' is on the right, huge tree, where the rhody path goes to the left along the golf course. Visible from that point, to the left, are the two huge 'Shirotae' in the same posting above. If you're walking south along the golf course in the rhody garden, toward Ceperley meadow, you walk between the two 'Shirotae' and then dead end at the 'Gyoiko'. At that point, you almost have to go out to the 'Shujaku'. Or maybe you were looking for green flowers! They look more green in photos. :) This year, so far, they are not very green, look pretty much like 'Ukon'. There are also a few others that may or may not be the same, just inside the maintenance yard to the left. I didn't check on them, am not sure if they are still there.

 

'Gyoiko' flowers are open now, seemingly with more green colouring than on the open ones three days ago. The outer petals are greenest.

 

Weirdness continues - Anne Eng just posted an 'Ama-no-gawa' in Fairview that was so finished blooming, while here in the West End, they still look really good, or at least they did three days ago. This first group on Chilco near Alberni is even up against a southwest wall, where they should get baked by the sun.


This other group is across the street and down a bit from me, directly in front of what used to be my view of English Bay. I was going to have to cut these guys some slack because they planted some 'Akebono' in the front of the building. Now I see that they have planted EIGHT 'Ama-no-gawa' along the east side of the building. I might have to make my peace with this building after all.

 

Janice Lin has sent along photos of 'Gyoiko' taken on May 6 by Gako Lin inside the Pitch and Putt, to the left of the maintenance gate that is near the tree posted a few postings before this. He included a map, so I'm adding that as well. Janice included this note:
"He felt 3 Gyoiko will soon be disappeared, because those are surrounded by lots of high trees and ivys. He wondered who can help to rescue these precious Gyoiko? "
I can't remember now when I was there, only found one of the trees on the golf course. They have not been in a very good setting ever since I first saw them. UBCBG has a cutting growing in the Wharton cherry grove from the tree just outside the golf course.

 

Aw. The 'Shiro-fugen' cherry on Cardero at Comox, the one on Cardero, has been cut down.


Photos of it were last posted in 2018: West End / Stanley Park

 

Too close to the highway or diseased? Whatever the reason, it's so sad when this happens.

 

It's a little hard to see from the photo I linked to. The boulevard was wide enough, but it was an old tree, and only one limb remained. It's on the side of the building where there was a new building behind it, so it had a protective fence around it last year. It flowered beautifully, but it really was getting kind of iffy, with its not too sturdy-looking limb overhanging the sidewalk.

 

@wcutler, everything has it's time and it's end. Mustn't get too melancholy. Perhaps a lovely new Cherry will replace this one closeby..

 

I was told that CBC Radio's Early Edition talked about cherry blossoms in bloom now, and was told to go photograph them. So here we go. These 'Autumnalis Rosea' have looked terrible in the past few years, if I remember correctly, so I wasn't racing out to see them this year, but they look pretty good for this cultivar, and maybe I'd have to even say they're in full bloom. These are the ones at the Co-op building west of Burrard and three blocks down at Jervis. It's been warm, but this is pretty much the normal time for these.

 

These 'Accolade' at the Aquatic Centre are at about the same stage as they were on January 31, 2008, first posting in this thread. It turns out that wasn't such an early year - it must have got cold shortly after that, because on February 18, I was getting impatient to see flowers and finally posted these trees in bloom on March 14. So we know what the year will bring, but not when it's going to bring it.

I saw the flowers on these trees, which are up at the street, from the seawall maybe 50 meters away. They're certainly not in bloom, but they're a little more exciting than the 'Autumnalis Rosea' in the previous posting.

 

Theresa M. posted this photo of the blossoms from the co-op two postings up. She gave me permission to post it here, as I'd like to use it on the festival's Blooming Now - Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival (vcbf.ca) page.

 

Our first snow, February 13, and a chance to get some snow-on-'Whitcomb' photos from my 'hood. These are maybe 50% open. In the West End, I don't think it has got more than one or two degrees below freezing; these flowers don't look like they're suffering too much.

 

The tree in the first three photos in the previous posting does not look good now. I'd been thinking the 'Whitcomb' cherries were not quite out in my neighbourhood, but now I think this might be peak bloom, and a couple of the trees are just not going to put on a show this year. I'm even wondering about the overall health of that particular tree.

The location of the second group of photos above is open now, visible for one and a half blocks. There used to be three 'Autumnalis Rosea' in this park, but they have all been removed.


The 'Whitcomb' at the edge of the Park at Comox only ever seems colourful up close.


Here's a little one in a planter at 2075 Comox. I might not have posted this, but my earliest photo of this is from 2012. I can't remember if that's when I first saw it, or if I never got those little twigs in focus.


There are hardly any 'Accolade' flowers open in the mini-park at Chilco and Comox, but one tree has a head start. A few of the trees at the Aquatic Centre have some open blossoms like this.

 

Do you think it's going to be a sparse year for Cherry blossom in your part of the world Wendy? We had this 4 years ago in the South of England, when there were many bare branches and very little leaf.

 

It still depends on the upcoming weather. The later cherries that are still in bud should not show any adverse effects to the past freezing temperatures, and the freezing has not been extreme and not prolonged.

 

Here the forecast is to get colder next weekend for several days. A more normal March compared to the previous 5, but it will be interesting to see how it affects the blossom this year.

 

I collected 'Whitcomb' peak bloom dates from this thread, then forgot where I put them (in an email) and then forgot that I collected them and wanted to post them. But I came across the email today, so here they are, of course not exact, based on what we happened to post when.
Feb 28, 2008
Mar 9, 2009, snow on 'Whitcomb'
Feb 5, 2010
Feb 24, 2011
Feb 14, 2012, not quite in bloom yet
Feb 14, 2013
Mar 10, 2014
Feb 8, 2015
Feb 11, 2016
Feb 22, 2017, 40% in bloom
Feb 8, 2018; great snow photos Feb 23
Jan 26, 2019
Jan 31, 2020, not in full bloom
Feb 27, 2021

 

We've had some 10 degree days, and the 'Accolade' trees at the Aquatic Centre and across the street are visible from two blocks away, which defines them as being in bloom. They will be more full of colour next week, but the flowers give nicer photos now with the darker pink buds. The ones over on Chilco are not quite as far along.

 

The 'Accolade' trees across from the Aquatic Centre don't look all that different today, though there are more flowers open. It's a sunnier day, though - a better photo for the festival website.


The other great West End 'Accolade' location on at Chilco Street and mini-park from Comox to Nelson is catching up.


What's also catching up is the 'Beni-shidare' at Alexandra Park. The flowers have just started popping open in the last two days, but the tree is very colourful from across the park. The last photo is from yesterday.