'Snofozam' on the north side of W. 37th, east of Wallace , in full bloom under the 'Akebono' blossoms, at March 31, 2022.
I have no pics as I was whizzing by this morning on my way to work, but I think there are several 'Ukon' in bloom along the wide boulevard 16th ave, in front of lord Byng school and a block or 2 in either direction form the school. They were not out last week, but this week are looking good. I thought they were on the map, but I don't see them. Not sure if I will be able to get a pic tomorrow or at some point this week, but if anyone is in the neighborhood...... I think they are 'Ukon' based on Anne's post #127
If you want another marker, put it on, either link to a posting/photo in the thread or do a new post and link to that. I always think of them as one stretch when I'm driving, but the existing marker describes them as going east from Blenheim, so fair enough.
So I stopped by on my way home tonight and took some pics. They are not 'Ukon', but are 'Tai-Haku'. Very large flower and red new growth. Then I found another post by Anne in the West Point grey Neighborhood thread where she has taken pics numerous times. #78 for 2021 post. I don't seem to be able to access the neighborhood map with the boundaries from either work or home computer, so I was not only in the wrong neighborhood, but had the wrong tree too. I will post over in the West point Grey thread my midnight pics!
I don't know why that disappeared, but I've replaced it. It wasn't displaying for me either, though I know that I used it on the weekend. Please let me know about festival website issues -no need to assume they're only your problem. West 16th is a neighbourhood boundary. At the time, I wasn't aware of a city database to check where they had recorded the trees, so I did the split by street side, and median trees went to the neighbourhood with fewer trees.
Thanks Wendy. I have the neighbourhood map now accessible! Did you know that 16th ave was the original boundary of Vancouver city? South of it was the separate municipality of South Vancouver formed in 1892 (History of South Vancouver - Fraser Street Stories ) South van use to include all of Point grey until 1908 when Point Grey became its own municipality. Then Cambie St became the border between Point Grey and South Van. South Van, Point Grey and Vancouver all amalgamated in 1929. (Vancouver History: Boundaries) The Old Fire hall No 13 at the top of our street, 25th and Fraser, had horse drawn fire trucks and was built in 1913. It use to face north onto 24th instead of facing south onto 25th or King Edward. We were told because they wanted it to face the city of Vancouver instead of the Municipality of South Van. Our old firehall had the tall "chimney" structure for drying the old cloth hoses. I have a pic of my son as a kid on the old fire pole. The hall was closed in 2001 for reconstruction and then was arsoned in 2002 and rebuilt and opened in 2003. It now faces King Edward! There are 2 cherry trees on the boulevard in front of it. I believe they are "Kanzan".! Sorry went off on a tangent there, but I love sharing the history of our city. I am a born and bred south van girl who still lives relatively close to where my family first immigrated too back at the turn of the last century!! My Great Grandfather was a trolley bus driver who had the Marpole run.
Another set of pics I meant to post from Thursday. I was quite struck by how there is still lots of snow on the runs up at Cypress, the sun is shining and you have this beautiful ribbon on pink framing the snow on the mountains!
Here is the 'Shujaku' on 20th at Wallace, with flowers already giving the impression of having faded to white, though these photos don't seem to convey that. Photos are from April 23, two days ago, seems like a week.
I was supposed to be following someone to Burnaby on Sunday, but I thought I discovered these avium 'Plena' on Blenheim at 24th, so I stopped to photograph them and got him all worried. Not only that, but I'd already discovered them in 2019. There were four at the time. I only noticed two this time, and none on the east side of the street. What I did discover were a young 'Shiro-fugen' on each side of the street.
This 'Beni-shidare' is just visible in a front yard over a tall hedge, but you can get a better glimpse from the gateway. It's on Blenheim south of 42nd. Around the corner is a nice street of 'Akebono', mostly all on the south side of 42nd.
A whole row of 'Akebono' line the east side of Quesnel Drive south from 16th. It's the back of the Blenheim Manor, and that side of the street has no sidewalk, making it a very attractive stretch.
One block west of Blenheim on SW Marine Drive is Glendalough Place, with a tight showy grouping of three lovely 'Akebono' trees. Glendalough Place is only one block long. There are two houses with single 'Akebono' in the front yard.
March 25, 2024 [Wallace, south of Marine Dr.] 'Beni-shidare' [Wallace, north of Marine Dr.] 'Akebono' [4038 W.39th] Relatively mature single 'Snow Goose'.
What used to be seven 'Whitcomb' cherries, a festival favourite location, is down to one 'Whitcomb' now. A second cherry may also have been 'Whitcomb', but it didn't appear to have any flowers today. There appeared to be several plums on the north side of the street, not yet open.
Especially a good site that used to be a festival favourite. But a lot of the old cherries are approaching the end of what seems to be their normal life span in our climate., particularly for trees that were grafted onto mazzard cherry (Prunus avium) rootstock, which was the case when these old trees were planted.
I recently posted a photo in Burnaby of such an impressive 'Akebono', but maybe this tree with an 18th Ave address near the top of the lane that was Quadra Street off 18th Ave tops that. I was so impressed with the size of the limbs on the tree in Burnaby, saying I had never seen anything like that, but I have looked onto this tree every two weeks for many years, and maybe it tops that. Today's photos are in the rain so here are links to sunny-day photos: from 2011: https://forums.botanicalgarden.ubc.ca/threads/dunbar-southlands.37301/page-2#post-273162 from 2018: https://forums.botanicalgarden.ubc.ca/threads/dunbar-southlands.37301/page-4#post-362316 It particularly impressed me today. The bare branches on the left belong to some trees next door. The 'Akebono'-like suckers seem to be coming from the roots. I didn't get close-ups of the flowers, but the non-clumping flower arrangements look similar to me to the rootstock growth in the thread at https://forums.botanicalgarden.ubc.ca/threads/what-ornamental-rootstock-on-this-akebono.72743/. Another thing interests me here, not related particularly related to this tree. I took what were supposed to be to be peak bloom photos of a group of trees (Maple Grove Park) two years in a row, and I was concerned by the difference in appearance of the peak bloom photos in the two years, with last year's photos on a cloudy day looking so much more pink than this year's sunny white photos. But the tree photo here is very pink, yet there are no buds to be seen in my blossom photos today, and there are petals on the ground, so this would be well past peak-bloom of 70% open flowers.
Visited Vancouver last week with the goal of seeing sakura at mankai and wanted to share some of the photos I took around Metro Vancouver April 02, 2025 Dunbar Community Centre - 'Somei-yoshino' These 3 trees were not at full bloom just yet when I arrived in Vancouver. But last year I missed peak bloom so I was very excited to see that I hadn't missed it yet! I think that these are 'Somei-yoshino' since they're much more white than the 'Akebono' I saw everywhere else & noted @wcutler had past posts discussing them. Figured I'd post some close-ups to see if this helps :)
April 5, 2025 Dunbar Community Centre - 'Somei-yoshino' Even with the cloud, these trees had fully popped & were at full bloom :) Super happy I got to see them before I headed home.
I think they are 'Somei-yoshino' too, because of the flat rather than curved flowers, the larger stars in the centres, and the very fuzzy pedicels (stems). I've been getting a few wrong, not picking up on some 'Akebono' that had already faded to white, but then I saw photos from previous years where there was no doubt (pinkish flowers, petaloids). It's nice to see these trees again - it looks like they have not appeared here since 2014.
