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Yesterday’s news – ‘Shiro-fugen’double white flowers become double pink flowers

April 28, 2025  ‘Shiro-fugen’ trees are one of the last to bloom, and the flowers are one of the longest-lasting. They undergo the most extreme changes during their show. Dusky-pink buds on long stems open to pure white flowers backed by bronze-coloured leaves. Flowers are still white as the leaves become green. Then the flowers develop a fluorescent pink eye that bleeds out to the petals, eventually turning the flowers entirely pink, backed by green leaves. During this process, new white flowers are still opening, so there are both pink and white flowers. These are usually healthy wide-spreading trees, densely packed with blossoms.

20250425_GranvilleIslandSeawall_Shirofugen_Blumenthal_7831
20250425_GranvilleIslandSeawall_Shirofugen_Blumenthal_7831
Shiro-fugen_IslandParkWalkAlderBayWalk_Cutler_20250426_125848
Shiro-fugen_IslandParkWalkAlderBayWalk_Cutler_20250426_125848
20250429 BCLeg Shiro-fugen Willard IMG_7224
20250429 BCLeg Shiro-fugen Willard IMG_7224
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Yesterday’s news – ‘Pink Perfection’ – double pink with white blossoms

April 24, 2025  ‘Pink Perfection’ flowers are similar-looking to ‘Kanzan’, but they have more of a raspberry swirl ice cream colouring when the blossoms emerge. The trees, however, will never form an arch over the road the way ‘Kanzan’ do. They can be further distinguished from ‘Kanzan’ by usually green leaves when the buds are opening, and by the white flag-like filaments on top of their stamens. These are delicate trees, particularly prone to disease when mismatched to the mazzard cherry rootstock on which they are often grown.

PinkPerfection_UBCBG-outside north gate_Cutler_20250422_123155c
PinkPerfection_UBCBG-outside north gate_Cutler_20250422_123155c
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Yesterday’s news – ‘Kanzan’ – fluffy double pink flowers

April 21, 2025  ‘Kanzan’ pink cherry blossoms are spreading their cheer everywhere now. Even one or two of these trees are eye-catching, but the wow factor is high with rows of these large trees on both sides of the streets forming canopies over the roadways in almost every neighbourhood. They are definitely the talk of the town.

Kanzan_East Mall Buchanan parking lot_Kiri_20250416_image2
Kanzan_East Mall Buchanan parking lot_Kiri_20250416_image2
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Yesterday’s news – ‘Ukon’ – double pale yellow blossoms

April 19, 2025  ‘Ukon’ cherry blossoms get their name from their unusual yellow-ish colour, suggesting that they have been dusted with the yellowish spice turmeric, ukon in Japanese. The emerging buds are a dull pale green, and open semi-double flowers can appear to be white, until you see them next to a white-flowered cherry or a white car. The flowers are sometimes seen with pale green stripes, giving the trees a slightly greenish tinge. These can be large impressive-looking trees.

20250415_Ukon_FlemingE26_Eng _0930
20250415_Ukon_FlemingE26_Eng _0930
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Yesterday’s news – ‘Ichiyo’ – double pinky-white blossoms

April 18, 2025  ‘Ichiyo’ cherries are big, beautiful usually healthy trees which, like yesterday’s feature ‘Takasago’, open with pink buds brightening to somewhat larger pinky white double flowers. These will also turn white, acquiring red eyes when they age. ‘Ichiyo’ are not common enough, are often seen here in pairs.

20250410_Ichiyo_FraserE54_Eng_0908
20250410_Ichiyo_FraserE54_Eng_0908
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Yesterday’s news – ‘Takasago’ – double pinky-white flowers

April 16, 2025  ‘Takasago’ trees almost always look awkward and diseased in Vancouver, but when they bloom, the flowers are so beautiful and densely packed that all is forgiven. They open, as shown here, with deep pink buds brightening to small pinky white double flowers. These will turn white, acquiring red eyes when they age. These uncommon trees have a few even more rare look-alikes. Their distinctive characteristic is their hairy, almost fuzzy, flower stems.

Takasago_ComoxBroughton_Cutler_220250408_161756
Takasago_ComoxBroughton_Cutler_220250408_161756
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Yesterday’s news – ‘Shirotae’ – double white blossoms

April 15, 2025  ‘Shirotae’ have been in bloom for a while. When the puffy double white flowers open, the trees appear bright white, but the flowers still look good when the leaves appear. These trees like to stretch out, can form a nice allee, all the better for you to catch their lovely fragrance.

20250405_Shirotae_AshW66_Eng_0892
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Yesterdays’s news – ‘Tai-haku’ – large single white blossoms

April 12, 2025  ‘Tai-haku’. Yet another ornamental cherry with single white blossoms, but as with yesterday’s, these flowers are distinctive: these are large for cherry blossoms, up to 6cm across, large enough to not be obscured by the coppery new foliage (which will eventually turn to green). Some of these trees are impressively wide-spreading with hefty limbs.

Tai-haku_SW Marine Dr UBC Botanical Garden_Kiri_20250409_image3
Tai-haku_SW Marine Dr UBC Botanical Garden_Kiri_20250409_image3
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Yesterday’s news – ‘Washi-no-o’ – single white fragrant blossoms

April 10, 2025  We are still featuring single white blossoms, most of which look the same, requiring taking note of other features to identify the cultivar. But these fragrant ‘Washi-no-o’ flowers are very distinctive with their narrow petals not overlapping, and the jagged petal edges supposedly suggesting their Japanese name for eagle’s tail.

Washi-no-o_QueensPark at Granville_Cutler_
Washi-no-o_QueensPark at Granville_Cutler_20250409_165620
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Yesterday’s news – ‘Snow Goose’ – single white blossoms

April 9, 2025  ‘Snow Goose’ has very white buds and flowers, with large long green sepals on the back that result in distinctively broad stars seen from the front of backlit flowers. The tree shape is also distinctive – quite narrow when young, broadening as the trees age, with upright branches curving outward at the tips of the branches on older trees. There is no observable way to distinguish these from the older ‘Umineko’, a cultivar created from the same parent trees.

SnowGoose_82Ave&202_204stsLangley_JosieMcCarthy_20250404_ed-wlc
SnowGoose_82Ave&202_204stsLangley_JosieMcCarthy_20250404_ed-wlc