Are the buds sticky? It reminds me of the 'Sir Edwan Muller' Sargent cherry in the second group of photos in this posting. That tree is gone now, replaced by an amphitheatre. In the next posting, Douglas Justice mentioned that that cultivar tends to flower before the leaves emerge, unusual for Sargent cherries.
The flowers of 'Sir Edwin Muller' have broader, more overlapping petals, and the colour is a creamier pink than what's shown here. This looks more like 'Rancho' to me, both in flower and crown shape. I suspect that the 'Sir Edwin Muller' was a one-off importation from England. I seriously doubt there's another in this area. By the way, Azure Road has a fantastic selection of cherries. I don't know if they are the City's cherries (it's hard to tell where the property lines are), but I'm pretty sure I've seen good looking 'Ichiyo', 'Ito-kukuri', 'Shiro-fugen' and others there, particularly on the northern part of the Azure loop.
No leaves, no problem (for that ID)? You did say it was rare for a sargentii to not have leaves out with the flowers.
Azure Road is indeed interesting. We have been pleasantly surprised each time we rode along. From what we could see, these interesting cherry trees are all on private land, on people's front yards. By the way, "Ito-kukuri"s are on the property of WorkSafe BC, on Westminster Hwy which intersects with Azure Road.
Re: Richmond Hmm. That would be great if it could be a distinguishing feature, but I don't know about that. The red filaments in the 'Rancho' photo in the book could be just because the blossoms are aging - note the deeper colour at the centre of the petals. That happens on a lot of the cherry flowers as they age. Look at the white filaments in the first posting in the Rancho - early mid season, single pink blossoms, upright, reddish leaves thread. Check the filaments on this tree in a few days to see if they're not red.
Re: Richmond Here's another posting of what seems unambiguously 'Rancho' with flowers showing white filaments.
