Vancouver Cherry Blossom FestivalPresented by
May 6, 2024. One more last hurrah – ‘Shiro-fugen’ flowers are looking even less fresh, giving the trees a dull pink look, but the flowers are still there, particularly in the cooler areas, and they are getting more interesting.
Much more rare ‘Kiku-zakura’ are doing the same, aging to pink, with second-story flowers developing from the centres.
April 29, 2024. The last hurrah – ‘Shiro-fugen’ flowers are no longer looking fresh, but they still have colour – just not the colour they started with, which was white flowers with bronze leaves, like this.
Here is what the ‘Shiro-fugen’ flowers look like now, green leaves, pink flowers, some white flowers, and many flowers with a mix of pink and white petals. While dark pink ‘Kanzan’ flowers are now fading to white, these ‘Shiro-fugen’ white flowers are delayed-opening ones.
April 24, 2024. We’re getting down to the wire – only the very late bloomers still have flowers worth a visit: avium ‘Plena’, ‘Shiro-fugen’, and ‘Kiku-zakura’ – the chrysanthemum cherry. These light pink flowers are smaller than the other double-flowered blossoms featured recently, but they have 75 to 100 tiny petals to start, and then they get even more petals when they start showing second-story flowers developing from their centres. At this point, the aging pink flowers are fading, and the new flowers appear with dark pink buds opening to the mature light pink colour. These trees are small, with a distinctive goblet shape filled in by somewhat straight crossing limbs.
The photo below is an unusual capture of the sepals of the second story flower before its petals have even developed.
April 19, 2024. Not all late-blooming cherries are pink. Here are two double white cherries that can look alike. ‘Shiro-fugen’ are easy to distinguish when the flowers are opening – at that point, the leaves are bronze, buds are a brownish pink, opened flowers are white. Two weeks later, and as much as another two weeks or more, the leaves will be green, and the flowers become partly or completely fluorescent pink.
However, one week into ‘Shiro-fugen’ flowering, they do not look all that different from the ‘Shogetsu’, seen below. ‘Shiro-fugen’ should be much heftier trees, but it’s hard to tell that on very young trees. ‘Shogetsu’ buds are a a very pale pink. The flowers also open white, and the petals mostly drop still white within two or three weeks. The name refers to the “moonlight on pine trees” suggested by the long flower stems. These are usually delicate trees that often do not do well in our climate.
April 16, 2024. Pink ‘Kanzan‘ blossoms are still running the show. These are so widely planted here because they are generally healthy trees, relative to some of the other cultivars, and are able to withstand extremes of weather and a certain amount of truck pruning. These can be large trees, very often forming a canopy over the street when planted on both sides. They open bright pink, but gradually fade to a very pale colour.
Not in competition at all, but with similar-looking flowers, are ‘Pink Perfection‘ trees. These much more delicate trees will never form a canopy over a street. So far, they have not been particularly hardy here, but UBC Botanical Garden has propagated some on their own roots (not grafted, as all previously seen ones here were), to see if they will be more healthy. When these first open, they create a raspberry swirl ice-cream effect with their red buds, dark pink outer petals, and lighter inner petals.
April 11, 2024. You might have noticed – ‘Kanzan‘ blossoms are starting to appear. The City of Vancouver Street Trees Portal shows 10,000 of them planted as street trees, many of them lining whole blocks on both sides of the street. Since they’re also planted in parks and are popular in private yards, it gets pretty pink around here.
April 7, 2024. Still everything is blooming at once, still mid-season and late-season trees. Moving on to double flowers now, having more than five petals. Here is a comparison of fragrant white ‘Shirotae‘ blossoms, usually opening in the mid-season …
… , and ‘Ukon‘, with pale yellow flowers, usually appearing a little later. These often look white, unless there is something white to which to compare them. But as they age, they may take on some up-close colour interest with green and red stripes.
April 6, 2024. Still catching up here, with everything blooming at once – at least mid-season and late-season trees. Here are some single White flowers, all pretty rare in this area, with the top one just added. The ones with “nioi’ or “no-o” in their names are fragrant, a fairly unusual feature of cherry trees.
‘Sendai-shidare’ are easily distinguished from the others here – they are usually short dense pendulous trees with thick very contorted limbs.
The wizened ‘Jo-nioi’, at the RCMP Headquarters property has sent up a new shoot. Here’s hoping the only other known example in Vancouver does the same. This looks similar to the ‘Washi-no-o’ featured just below, but it blooms later and the flowers are more likely to show the extra half-petals you can see in this photo.
‘Washi-no-o’ are fairly rare, but our Cherry Scouts have found ten locations in the area. The name means “eagle’s tail”, suggestive of the ruffled petal edges.
‘Surugadai-nioi’, only two known so far, one very private tree in Fairview, and its offspring at UBC Botanical Garden.
‘Umineko’ are usually older trees than ‘Snow Goose’ but their parents are the same and they look identical. The young ones that come in labelled ‘Snow Goose’ get that name. Note the round overlapping petals that result in fat stars in the centres. Young trees are distinctively narrow and upright. Here are
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March 29, 2024. We have to catch up here – everything is blooming at once. Here are some single pink flowers, all pretty rare in this area.
Shosar’ in Richmond. We only know of these in two Richmond locations and one in Burnaby.
‘Star Cherry’ in Vanier Park near the Planetarium in Vancouver. We have five locations for these on our map.
‘Afterglow’ in the Kensington-Cedar Cottage neighbourhood. We knew nothing about this cultivar, but once we saw a street block of them and learned what they were, scouts found 10 more locations.
‘Choshu-hizakura’ in the Arbutus Ridge neighborhood. There were three locations, but a group in a park were removed for some park renovation that made us very unhappy.
March 23, 2024. ‘Akebono’ cherries are hard to miss now. This is the second most commonly seen cherry cultivar around Vancouver and their billowy pinky-white flowers grow on gracefully spreading trees – outstretched limbs are generally straight and most of the trees have a somewhat flat top.
