Vancouver Cherry Blossom FestivalPresented by
March 21, 2023. ‘Whitcomb’ cherries still look good in the West End, but now the rest of the area gets to enjoy them. Josie Tonio McCarthy found this tree on Fader Street in New Westminster where our map already has three other later-blooming cultivars.
March 16, 2023. There will soon be two cherry cultivars in bloom with single (5-petalled) pink flowers. ‘Whitcomb’ have been featured here already – they have been open in the West End since the third week of February, and they are about to open very soon in the rest of the area. These flowers open dark pink, then fade to almost white. The petal shape is round enough that the petals overlap. Since it’s usually still cold when they open in February or March, these trees have flowers until almost April, often with a mix of pale and dark flowers.
Here are ‘Okame’, not nearly as commonly planted in this area. Shirley Willard photographed these starting to open in Sechelt. These are smaller flowers than on ‘Whitcomb’ and the petals are more narrow – you can see that they do not overlap. The sepals (on the back of the flowers) are often pink.
March 11, 2023. Well, I don’t know who was more excited – Millie and Jinxang (I hope he will let me know if I got his name wrong, since my phone un-corrected it), who came to Nicola mini-park to see the ‘Whitcomb’ cherries featured on Blooming Now last week (now in the Blog at Yesterday’s news – ‘Whitcomb blossoms’ – Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival (vcbf.ca)) and got to meet the person who posted them, or me, Wendy, the Cherry Scout Co-ordinator, who was thrilled to see that someone read my posting on this page and was inspired to come take photos. “… no stranger under the cherry tree …” indeed!
Since it’s a photoshoot, I’ll post my own photoshoot.
March 5, 2023. The snow is mostly gone. ‘Whitcomb’ blossoms in the West End still look good. This cultivar does not seem to be open yet anywhere else in the city. Perhaps that will mean a shorter but more colourful display when the flowers all open at once.
February 28, 2023. No sooner did our ‘Whitcomb’ cherries open in the West End neighbourhood, than they got blanketed by snow. Sigh! They look nice for now anyway.
February 14, 2023. Most of our winter-blooming cherries are doing nothing right now, except for this group of four on Pacific Street east of Jervis in the West End, which look better than they ever have. Thanks to Shirley Willard being excited enough to send along these photos.
May 15, 2022. Aren’t cold wet springs great?! ‘Shiro-fugen’ just keeps on keeping on. We don’t generally make two trees a Festival Favourite location, so this site in Gibsons doesn’t qualify to be listed in the Festival Favourites in Bloom section below, but it looks lovely, yes? Note that these flowers that opened white with bronze leaves now are pink flowers with green leaves.
You can share your finds on our forums at VCBF Neighbourhood Blogs | UBC Botanical Garden Forums.
May 10, 2022. Same blurb, new photos. ‘Shiro-fugen’ and ‘Kiku-zakura’ continue their interesting flower development. ‘Shiro-fugen flowers keep opening, so there are always white flowers in the mix, now giving the trees the impression of being pink-flowering with green leaves. While there is a lot of variation in flower colour on ‘Kiku-zakura’, it has the appearance of being lighter-coloured. There is lots of interesting stuff happening in the centre of the flowers.
You can share your finds on our forums at VCBF Neighbourhood Blogs | UBC Botanical Garden Forums.
These have been featured photos on the Blooming Now page.
May 8, 2022. ‘Shiro-fugen’ and ‘Kiku-zakura’ continue their interesting flower development. ‘Shiro-fugen flowers keep opening, so there are always white flowers in the mix, now giving the trees the impression of being pink-flowering with green leaves. While there is a lot of variation in flower colour on ‘Kiku-zakura’, it has the appearance of being lighter-coloured. There is lots of interesting stuff happening in the centre of the flowers.
You can share your finds on our forums at VCBF Neighbourhood Blogs | UBC Botanical Garden Forums.
These have been featured photos on the Blooming Now page.
May 5, 2022. ‘Shiro-fugen’ and ‘Kiku-zakura’ are probably all that will appear here for the rest of the season, as they hold onto their flowers, changing each day, with developments that are more interesting signs of senescence.
You can share your finds on our forums at VCBF Neighbourhood Blogs | UBC Botanical Garden Forums.
These have been featured photos on the Blooming Now page.