Category: Uncategorized

April 24, 2022. Our cherries have no idea that we’ve passed the festival’s end date. These ‘Kiku-zakura’ are just starting to shine. The name appropriately means “chrysanthemum cherry”. We are more familiar with a weeping cultivar with similar flowers, but these fairly small trees have a distinctive goblet structure. As the flowering develops, they will also have distinctive two-story flowers. These rare flowers are much smaller than ‘Kanzan’ and they have many more petals.

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.

April 23, 2022. If you want to distinguish cherries with double white flowers, timing can be everything. Right now, ‘Shogetsu’ blossoms are emerging with green leaves, while ‘Shiro-fugen’ leaves can be a stunning deep bronze.

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.

April 22, 2022. ‘Kanzan’ time! Fourteen years ago we were told the City of Vancouver had over 11,000 ‘Kanzan’ just on street boulevards, not counting parks and not counting privately planted trees. If you live here and can’t find some of these to admire, you’re just not trying.

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.

April 21, 2022. Double pink flowers, again from two very different cherries, though it took us a long time to figure that out. ‘Pink Perfection’ are very slight trees that will never form an arch over any street. Note details here of the minute cuts on the petal edges, and the little flags at the tips of the stamens. These have green leaves when the flowers emerge. There are very few of these around. ‘Kanzan’, the most commonly planted cherry in Vancouver, can be robust trees that are often planted on both sides of a whole block, forming an arch over the street. Their leaves emerge bronze to accompany 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.

April 20, 2022. Double white flowers from two very different cherries. Broadly-spreading ‘Shirotae’ are well past their prime except in the coldest areas. Prunus avium ‘Plena’ are tall trees much more upright than spreading, and they are just coming into bloom now. They have the sweet cherry species characteristic of sepals that fold back to the stem, so that from the back of the flowers you see a dot instead of a green star.

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.

April 19, 2022. These two photos were taken at the group of four ‘Ukon’ trees at the Ring Gear Monument on Pacific Boulevard. One of the trees has flowers coloured more like ‘Gyoiko’. Does that mean it really is ‘Gyoiko’? Maybe we will figure this out one day.

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.

April 18, 2022. Look at all those petals on these ‘Kiku-shidare-zakura’. They are named chrysanthemum flowers for good reason – they can have more than 100 petals on flowers that don’t get larger than 3.5cm across. “Shidare” in the name indicates that they’re weeping trees.

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.

April 17, 2022. “Loveliest of trees, the cherry now / Is hung with bloom along the bough, / And stands about the woodland ride / Wearing white for Eastertide.” A.E. Housman, A Shropshire Lad (1896). Sweet cherries, Prunus avium, are woodland trees and are in bloom now. These cultivars are not exactly woodland trees: ‘Sendai-shidare’ and ‘Shogetsu’, but they do have white 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.

April 16, 2022. Here are two late-season double-bloomers, but not the big names. ‘Ichiyo’ are not common, but they’re around, often planted as a pair. We’d thought for years that the ‘Ichihara-tora-no-o’ in the Sunset neighbourhood was a one and only, but last year a cherry scout posted photos of one in Burnaby. These photos were taken last week; they should both have good flower cover now.

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.

April 15, 2022. Mid-season bloomers like ‘Takasago’ are hanging on with our cooler April weather. The flowers are all starting to look more like the red-centred ones in the first photo here. ‘Ama-no-gawa’ opened early this year but still look beautiful.

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.