This might be an exciting find for Seattle. A friend travelling with me happened to need to visit the people living in this house at 6552 36th Ave NE, where there was this cherry that still had a lot of white blossoms. They're on long stems like Shogetsu and Shirofugen, the two late bloomers that I know. Unlike Shogetsu and Shirofugen though, which have hardly any stamens, these double white blossoms have lots of stamens. In the first photo, you can see several phylloid structures that are about the size of the leaves, but they have phylloid-pattern veining that's very different from the leaf veining. I've only seen this on Shirfugens. But the leaves are quite small, much smaller than Shogetsu or Shirofugen, with very different leaf margins. And the stems look hairier. The people living in the house say that it also blooms in December. I have a magazine photo of 'Nido-zakura', which means "blooming two times", which shows white blossoms with stamens on long stems. Our scout Mariko says the Nido-zakura first bloom is single and the next one double. I didn't ask her if the first bloom is in the winter. I could ask the residents to pay attention and take photos next year.
What?! OK, the leaves look similar. The flowers in the photo do look similar, but too bad I didn't think to measure them - they were more like 2" in diameter. And it's June, for pete's sake. I have 'Autumnalis rosea' defined as very early blooming, and here this is the last thing on the block. Also, what about all those green leaf-like things that aren't leaves? 'Autumnalis rosea' does that?
The only thing giving me pause is the 2" flower diameter and perhaps the broad petals. Leaves show P. incisa influence, tree looks like a Higan. 'Autumnalis Rosea' may have some flowers at any time here. A few blossoms can be seen almost any month... --A. Jacobson, Trees of Seattle - Second Edition (2006) Possible aberrations including phyllodes would be associated with off-season timing, same as with summer blooms of saucer magnolias etc. I am sure I have seen similar scattered branching bunches of blooms on 'Autumnalis Rosea' many times.
Are those green leaf-looking non-leaf things stipules? I just noticed a smaller version of something that looks like those at the base of the stem on the Snow Goose, 2nd photo, and these seem to come from the base of the stem. I have a few photos of 'Autumnalis Rosea' blossoms with leaves and I don't see anything like that on them.
Well, I wasn't looking for them before. I found some enlarged stipules, or whatever they are, today on one of the 'Autumnalis Rosea' trees at Lost Lagoon, but it took a lot of looking. That might have nothing to do with the cultivar identification, though. I see enlarged stipules being a symptom of X-disease, usually on sweet or sour cherries, though this article said flowering cherries are symptomless hosts. Some other article that talked about enlarged stipules said X-disease attacks trees on Mazzard or Mahaleb stock. So I guess it's good I only found that feature on the one tree.