Re: Sunset - FIRST POSTING IN 2009 Five Whitcombs at the southwest corner of Prince Edward and E. 51 Ave. (Sunset Community Centre Ice Rink) in full bloom on March 22, 2009.
Re: Whitcomb - Sunset, E. 59 Ave from Main to Prince Edward St. This is going to be an amazingly beautiful location - the whole street is full of Whitcombs, except for some plums right at Main and some Akebonos in the middle on the south side and maybe something else on the north side - I can't remember now. This would be a good spot to compare the plums and Whitcombs, except that it's too easy, as the plums here will be white. Maybe another week till blooming? They're not worth a trip yet, though I got plenty excited. It's good for blossom photos, as there are some branches that droop quite low, but you can see in the background how little is really open on March 27.
Re:59th and Main East 59th Ave from Main St to Prince Edward St: These 15 Whitcombs are more advanced in blossom than others I've seen, though not quite at their peak yet. Perhaps it's due to their location on the south slope? I love the patterns formed by the delicate branches against the blue-sky background.
I was with Linda Poole, the festival director, and her friend Carol. We'd planned to go to an exhibit that was closed for the holiday, so since we were in the Sunset area, I made Linda drive me to see the festival favourite Whitcombs on 59th at Prince Edward. On the same corner, on Prince Edward, we saw these Akebonos, and off in the distance, we saw the darker trees, so drove down to have a look. I'm waiting for these to be identified in the Cultivars ID Forum, but I've guessed that they're 'Pink Shell', which Douglas, in his April 20, 2008 Blog, described as looking like "unusually low, wide, bright pink ‘Akebono’ cherries". That describes these perfectly. [edited by wcutler: But that's not what these are. They're more likely 'Afterglow'. Edited again by wcutler: now Douglas is hedging, maybe 'Afterglow' and 'Pink Shell' are the same?] We were wondering why what looked like Akebonos were darker in the distance, and this is what we came upon, a whole block of them, both sides, on Prince Edward between 61st and 62nd. If you know Linda, you'd understand why I had to have that young person in this photo, what with her pink slacks and all. While we were looking for the Whitcombs, we came across this great street of old Akebonos on 54th from St George to Prince Edward.
Re: Whitcomb - Sunset, E. 59 Ave from Main to Prince Edward St. There are actually three cultivars on this street. I didn't count how many of what, but there are indeed Whitcombs, still looking ok, but with leaves coming out now ... and at least one Accolade, looking very nice ... and at least two Akebonos that I didn't photograph, but out enough to look good.
The three Spires in Memorial Park, south side of E. 41, east of Prince Albert are easy to miss, because they look so tall and healthy, for Spire. In bloom April 13, 2009. [edited 20090715 by wcutler: see next post - these have been re-identified as Schmittii]
The reason these trees are so healthy, is that they aren't 'Spire' at all. They're Schmitt cherry (Prunus 'Schmittii')! Note the small flowers with narrow, recurved petals against the trunk and the taller, cleaner, more open habit (no brown rot damage). Typical 'Spire' below (picture taken 13 April 2009), and flowers (from previous year). Thanks to Wendy Cutler for pointing this out to me. [edited 2011jan05]: I needed to ask Douglas Justice if 'Umineko' were blooming at the same time. Yes they were - Douglas sent me this photo from the same location: 57th, looking east from Ontario. The 'Spire' trees are around Quebec, east of this line of 'Umineko'.
Largest Somei-Yoshino in Vancouver?! There is a huge Somei-Yoshino near the corner of Prince Edward and Woodstock. It is much taller than 2 story house. It looks not grafted. The trunk is more than 40 cm in diameter. It looks much older than UBC or Cambie Somei-Yoshinos.
When I first see Wendy’s photos of Prince Edward & 62, I wondered they were really Pink Shell. So I went to see the cherries on April 14th. It was only 4, 5 days after Wendy’s visit, they looked very different. Pink of the flowers are not so dark. There are 7 “Pink Shell" trees on the block between 61 and 62 and other 4 or 5 trees are Akebonos. After I came home I realised that I didn’t measure single flower size. So I visited again on April 15. Flowers are much smaller than Akebono. The color was fading day by day. That day I found a broken branch which is more than 1meter. It was too big to bring back so I tore and brought a small twig to my house. Today (April 17) it looks very beautiful with green leaves. Last year I brought back the branches used for the Tree Identification talk of Douglas. I think one of them were Pink shell and this twig looks like the one I brought last year. So I think this is “Pink Shell”
I can't win this no matter what. I just posted photos in Douglas's Cherry Orchard blog thread of what I guessed today was Pink Shell, but I didn't think it was the same thing as these trees on Prince Edward. So I get to be wrong one place or the other. Oh, I forgot about the entirely possible wrong in both places. Mariko, just to be sure - you're not comparing last year's branch photo with this year's - that's two photos of this year's branch. You're just remembering what last year's branch looks like?
I think Mariko might have something here. Note how the petals fold in on themselves as they age. Wouldn't it be interesting if 'Afterglow' was the American name for the British 'Pink Shell'. I'm not saying that that's what's happening here, but stranger things have happened in horticulture. I would dearly love to cultivate all of the known cultivars growing in this area in the "common garden." Because the only 'Pink Shell' we know are at UBC, and flower at least two weeks later than they would if planted downtown or in south Vancouver, we have to compare with images, rather than actual flowers. I estimate we need about $50K a year to do a proper job at the Botanical Garden Nursery; i.e., gather all the available cherries together, propagate them on their own roots, send them out for regular virus indexing and see which are really suited to this climate. Ultimately we could make the best of them available to the trade. Anyone know a wealthy benefactor?
Wendy, you are right. I'll post the pictures here. I think these are Pink Shell. There is no name written for this flowers.
Re: Kiku Shidare Zakura - Sunset, Ross at Waverley Here's the map for the Kiku-shidare in the previous posting.
Two Ichiyos in bloom April 24, 2009 on southeast corner of Fraser and E. 54. A starved little Avium is squashed between them.
Prunus Sato-zakura Group 'Kanzan'. I was at the community centre for a workshop and thought I'd made this great discovery, but then it turns out it's been found before - a festival favourite no less. The way these big old trees seem to go on forever and totally fill up the road at the end of the vista makes it special. After you see these, turn south on Fraser, then left on 53rd, for another 2-sided stretch, all the way to Ross.
On April 28, Kanzans were full bloom and Avium Plenas were half bloom on Elgin St. Between 49th to 47th.
First posting 2010 Lonely Accolade already dropping blossoms at NW E 59 Ave. and Prince Edward, Jan. 27, 2010. It's in Whitcomb country; the Whitcomb next to it and two across the street are blooming although the rest of the family running westward on E 59 to Main Street are still in bud.
Vanguard of three Whitcombs in bloom Jan. 27, 2010 on both sides of E 59, west of Prince Edward St. The rest of the Whitcombs westward along E 59 still in bud.
Anne, you win this year on first Whitcomb and Accolade postings. Sunset might be the hotspot for this year, though the West End trees look about the same, as do the Accolades on Yew south of 43rd, over on the other side of the city (I don't think I got any in focus, but they looked about the same when I saw them last week). So it seems that there's not much difference around the city right now. The spring cherries are early everywhere.
The two Ichyio trees on the east side of Fraser Street, south of E. 54 Avenue are in full bloom on March 30, 2010. However the Ichyios on W.41 and Willow are just starting.
Those Fraser Street trees were my motivation for getting into flowering cherries again (after a long hiatus in my late teens and early twenties). I was living just off Fraser Street on 46th and it was my habit to drive Fraser to and from Marine Drive practically every day. It was probably 1996 when I stopped to try to work out an identification for these unusually beautiful trees. The Willow and 41st trees, which have been slowly succumbing to bacterial canker, overcrowding and shoddy pruning might actually be something else. 'Edo-zakura' anyone?
Kiku-shidare in (private) full bloom at 549 E 57, west of Fraser, on April 3, 2010. [Edited by wcutler May 4, 2020]: tree is no longer there