Vancouver Cherry Blossom FestivalPresented by
April 7, 2026 Mid-season blooms are opening quickly now. Double-flowered ‘Shirotae’ are are still wowing us. These are often beautiful wide-spreading trees, and they can grow quite large. Their leaves start to open with the flowers, giving the trees an over-all warmer colour. Thanks to Cherry Scouts Anne Eng and Tao Yan for the photos.
March 18, 2026 Double-flowered ‘Accolade’ have not been showing well this year, but the flowers are still beautiful. Here is Taka Naidu’s photo.
March 13, 2026 More early single pink flowers, these on trees with a weeping habit. They are known in Japan as ito-zakura, or thread cherries. The flowers on this species can be white or pink, as in the first photo below. Commonly seen in our location is a cultivar with deep pink blossoms called ‘Beni-shidare’. Photos are by Shirley Willard and Wendy Cutler.
February 8, 2026 ‘Whitcomb’ cherries in the warmer neighbourhoods started looking in bloom on January 24 this year. Now, on February 8, there is still no freezing weather, so the blooms are hanging on. New flowers are opening, but still in the warm neighbourhoods, as the evenings have been well below 10C degrees. These flowers photographed by Shirley Willard are from a tree in Kitsilano.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
