Kitsilano

Here are more photos of the three 'Ukon' on Point Grey Road at Macdonald. 'Ukon' can have quite a bit of green and still be considered the same cultivar.

 

We're featuring hanami spots this year, so this park-like boulevard with the 'Kanzan' in bloom on Point Grey Road at Trutch should qualify. The P. avium 'Plena' trees in the next block are just coming into bloom.

 

This is not a timely posting. I guess I didn't consider these 'Afterglow' photos from March 22 worth posting at the time, but now scout Mary Ellen just checked with the city and they have no record of any cherry except 'Akebono' on this block, just as with the block of them in the Sunset neighbourhood.

And I want to correct the location given in Tony's posting - the 'Afterglow' are on the west side of Balaclava. A friend reported that to me in an email, and that's what I remember from visiting them. I don't remember if there were any also on the east side.

 

This will be a non-'Kanzan' posting. Here is a lone 'Shirofugen' on 1st at Yew.


And another single 'Shirofugen', this one at the north end of Chestnut St across from the Maritime Museum.


Further west at Kits Beach, north of the Oshima cherries, is this lone 'Pink Perfection', given lots of room to spread out! I wonder if the Parks Board thought they had a 'Kanzan' or something else, or planted it when we thought 'Kanzan' and 'Pink Perfection' were pretty much the same thing. This is not going to get much larger than it is now. I'm identifying it by the vexillate filaments (flags at the end of the stamens) and the sort-of second-story flower bud, which I've seen on other examples of this cultivar.


And last, an 'Amanogawa' still in bloom on 5th at Cypress, doing what this cultivar does best - grow straight up, though we've seen several that are more spreading than this one.

 

Kits is full of 'Kanzan', but nobody ever posts them, so we don't have the locations recorded. Yew St has them on both sides from Broadway (9th, as it seems to be most everywhere) down to the beach, north of 1st. The second photo is the block of 5th west of Burrard. The third is a 'Kanzan' at the park on 6th at Maple, the same park with the 'Whitcomb' that's been posted here.


What really got my interest, though, next to the 'Kanzan' in that same park on 6th at Maple, was this pear tree with several trunks that merged and then split off again in a different configuration. In the third photo, it looks like the trunk on the left went through one of the other trunks and then merged with a different one. It's a nice-looking tree, but I didn't think to take a picture of its shape.

 

I left out one 'Kanzan' location, McNicoll at Chestnut, which is near one of the starting locations for the Bike the Blossoms this Saturday.

 

We're back! Kitsilano 'Whitcomb' are in bloom. This is the nice one on 6th at Maple in what seems like a small park, but it runs through to 7th.

 

I'm sure the festival favourite 'Akebono' on Cornwall at Kits Beach and at Vanier Park are in bloom. They haven't been posted here this year (yet), but you can see lots of photos from previous years in this thread.

 

Stellata in Vanier Park near the Planetarium on April 8th

 

Oshima in Kitsilano Beach Park on April 8th

 

That's given me a whole different idea of what that cultivar looks like. I had to check the previous photos to convince myself that it's the same trees. We had nothing posted that showed such big tight flower clusters. The tree is looking more spread out than when last posted too.

 

Schmitt blooming on the north side on Sixth Avenue at Arbutus

 

Several trees in bloom at the triangle park on Point Grey Road and Blenheim at 1st Avenue. Prior year's posting identified as Akebono.

 

Several Shirotae on 7th at Vine (Kits House) on April 15

 

East side of Kits Beach, north of tennis courts on Arbutus are Oshima on April 15 (also Somei-Yoshino not in photo)

 

Three Akebono(?) at Boathouse parking lot, entry on Arbutus at Cornwall

 

Row of Shirotae by row of townhouse shops on 1st Avenue, west of Burrard

 

Young Shirotae (name tag still attached) on 1st Avenue at Burrard on the southside of Seaforth Park - April 15

 

Two mature Tai Haku on Burrard at 1st Avenue (Seaforth Park) on April 15; blurry close-up photo included for viewing bronze foliage

 

Three Shirotae on west side of Maple, south of 2nd Avenue on April 15

 

It's early for these 'Ukon' at 1st and Macdonald. I think the one in bloom might be the first in the city; the others in this group seem content to wait until it's really their proper time. This tree looks totally coloured up; the others have only a very few blossoms open. I said previously that there are three of these trees here; today I saw four and did not look carefully to see if there is yet one more. Yet again, a white car (part) conveniently appears in the shot to set off the yellowish colour of the blossoms. This time it's not my car, though.

 

This 'Amanogawa' at 2nd and Larch was past its prime four days ago. It's a nice-looking tree though. Or maybe it's a group of two or three. I was late when I drove by them.

 

Since Birch Bark Cherries are more interesting for the bark than the blossoms, postings of them are always timely. Here's a very pretty tree in a front yard on 3rd west of Trafalgar, south side.

 

I've seen two locations in Kits that have 'Whitcomb' totally in bloom. This trio is on 1st just west of Balsam. The blossoms were still there after all that wind today. Gusts were supposed to have been up to 85 km/h.

 

Re: Kitsilano 'Pandora' and others

Nice pruning job on these 'Pandora' on the south side of 6th at Cypress, eh? If they work on it, they can have these looking as bad as the city trees down the block, pruned for the electrical wires. A familiar story - I'm guessing the people on the top floor didn't want to look out on boring cherries when they could otherwise be looking at the water and mountains. These are not quite in bloom, with more flowers on branches that get the afternoon sun (on the few days there has been afternoon sun, you wouldn't think that could have made a difference).


But two blocks down, across Arbutus, at least 50% of these 'Pandora' trees are more than 50% in bloom. The 'Schmitt' Cherries across the street are showing no colour at all.


[Edited] I only read the reminder to mention this four times while I was posting it, and then I didn't do it. The block between these two groups of 'Pandora' is Delamont. I hope the full Canada.com article stays around. Here's an excerpt, quoting Bruce Macdonald:

The Park on that block is Delamont Park, dedicated to Arthur Delamont. You can read the history on this Parks Board page.

This 'Colt' at 8th and Arbutus has had a lot of attention here and in the Ornamental Cherries forum. It's a sweet cherry probably used as a rootstock, I think for 'Kanzan'. I just thought the pink tinge on the edge of the petals was quite nice.


The first 'Shirotae' that will bloom in the city, at Maple and Broadway, are still almost a week away. No other 'Shirotae' are nearly this far along, even in Kits or the West End.


'Star Cherries' at the Museum of Vancouver are also about a week away. There was only this one cluster almost in bloom.


You can buy this 'Whitcomb' on Whyte Ave west of Maple near Kits Beach, visible in the background. Or some part of it - this is condominium building. It's still looking pretty good.