The First International Cherry Blossom Prediction Competition ended on February 28, 2022. Vancouver contributed a location for the competition: the ‘Akebono’ trees in Maple Grove Park, at the corner of SW Marine Drive and Yew Street. Douglas Justice, Associate Director, Horticulture & Collections at UBC Botanical Garden, has been photographing them beginning on March 10. These are so far pretty restrained, showing barely any discernable colour in this photo taken March 18, 2022. The same cultivar trees are about to pop open downtown and in the West End, and next week’s predicted 15C degree temperatures should hasten things along everywhere in the city.
These photos are from March 28. The trees were declared to be at 70% open flowers as of March 27, 2022, the day before these photos were taken.
