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Yesterday’s news – ‘Okame’

March 9, 2024. ‘Okame’ cherries, which were also hard-hit by the January freeze here, are doing well in the cooler neighbourhoods where the buds were not out yet in January. They are, however, not commonly planted here. This photo is from Gibsons, on the Sunshine Coast north of Vancouver, a short ferry ride away.

20240306 GaleAveN Okame Willard IMG_8025
20240306 GaleAveN Okame Willard IMG_8025
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Yesterday’s news – ‘Afterglow’

April 9, 2023. It was several years before our Cherry Scouts found ‘Afterglow’ trees. They were all listed as ‘Akebono’, and indeed they are a different cultivar of the same Prunus yedoensis species, and they bloom at roughly the same time. They have a similar habit (shape), but the flowers are smaller and much more pink. The petals are round enough to overlap. Thanks to Anne Eng for this photo.

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20230407_Afterglow_ElginE27_Eng_7604
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Yesterday’s news – ‘Okame’

March 28, 2023. ‘Okame’ flowers in Tsawwassen are looking excellent. The trees themselves are not much to write home about, but the colour is exciting and the flowers are little gems.

9Ave56St_Okame_Cutler_20230325_152305
9Ave56St_Okame_Cutler_20230325_152305

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9Ave56St_Okame_Cutler_20230325_152259
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Yesterday’s news – ‘Accolade’, compare to ‘Autumnalis Rosea’

March 24, 2023. Double (or semi-double) flowered ‘Accolade’ cherries are starting to look good around town. These flowers have more than five petals. They are more than twice the diameter of the earlier-blooming ‘Autumnalis Rosea’, and they form a tidier flatter disk. Shirley Willard took this photo at Vancouver City Hall on March 19.

20230319 CityHall Accolade Willard IMG_0915
Accolade_VancCityHall_Willard_20230319_IMG_0915

For a comparison, here are ‘Autumnalis Rosea’ flowers from March 11. This is the only other cherry cultivar in bloom right now with more than 5 petals. Well, sometimes you can find an extra petal on ‘Whitcomb’ blossoms, but that is rare. Thanks again to Shirley Willard for the photo.

20230311 PacificWBurrard Autumnalisrosea Willard IMG_0488
20230311 PacificWBurrard Autumnalisrosea Willard IMG_0488
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Yesterday’s news – ‘Whitcomb’ blossoms

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.

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20230319_whitcomb_fader+major_mccarthy_081845
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Yesterday’s news – ‘Whitcomb’ and ‘Okame’ comparison

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.

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Yesterday’s news – ‘Whitcomb’ photoshoot

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.

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Yesterday’s news – ‘Whitcomb blossoms’

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.

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Yesterday’s news – ‘Whitcomb’ in the snow

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.

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Yesterday’s news – the last flowers of ‘Shiro-fugen’

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.

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‘Shiro-fugen’ in the Sunshine Coast neighbourhood, photo by Shirley Willard.
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‘Shiro-fugen’ in the Sunshine Coast neighbourhood, photo by Shirley Willard.