Vancouver Cherry Blossom FestivalPresented by
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 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.
May 13, 2023. The most interesting, most magical, longest in bloom cherry tree around right now is ‘Shiro-fugen’. These opened with white flowers and bronze leaves. Many still had white flowers when the leaves started to turn green. Then the flowers started to turn luminescent pink from the centres. Eventually, the trees are becoming ‘Kanzan’-coloured pink, with green or bronzy-green leaves. Yet new flowers keep opening, white, so it’s easy to see them when you’re looking closely at the flowers. From close-up, the ‘Shiro-fugen’ flowers won’t look as withered as soon. Thanks to Shirley Willard, Taka Naidu, Anne Eng, Yong Hui, Lisa Lennie, May Lin and Wendy Cutler for the photos.
