Re: Mount Pleasant - Tea Swamp Park Whitcombs The Whitcombs in Tea Swamp Park at 15th and Sophia are looking good now. Pandora Yeung took this photo on my camera. There are some other Whitcombs just three blocks away on 18th between Sophia and Prince Edward, along with Accolades just starting to open. That location is reported in the Riley Park thread.
City Hall boasts some pretty spectacular cherries - I've labeled them as Accolades, but I'm not sure they are. This one was by the west side of the building: And this one is right in front of the main entrance door: Laura 3:)
Re: Mount Pleasant - a little walk Here's a walk from the Mount Pleasant Community Centre at 16th and Ontario to City Hall at 11th and Yukon. First up are the 'Pandora' trees we identified (that would be Douglas Justice identified) last year, two at the Community Centre on 16th and one inside the pool enclosure on 15th. Across 16th is a young 'Akebono'. Walk west one block to Manitoba. If you look south, it's a long street of plums. Walk north to 15th on a pathway through the park. Turning west on 15th (I think) there are two young seemingly ungrafted 'Akebono'. I wondered if the splotching on the bark was characteristic of 'Akebono'. Continuing west on 15th to Columbia, you can see 'Accolade' trees in the back yard of a townhouse complex, visible from 15th and in this photo from Columbia. Further along 15th at Yukon, turn the corner to see three 'Accolade' trees that were unwitting festival favourites one year when they turned out not to be 'Autumnalis Rosea'. There is an 'Autumnalis Rosea' half-way down the block on 15th toward Cambie, south side, that still has blooms, if you want to compare them. Walk north on Yukon. Here's a detour on 13th east almost one block to see an 'Accolade' that seems to have been extensively pruned but has a nice shape and looks very healthy. On the left side of the same yard is an 'Akebono' not yet in bloom. Laura mentioned two 'Accolade' at City Hall. Here's a row of them on the north side of the building. And last, across the street from City Hall, at 11th on Yukon, is a historic (for Vancouver) 1912 house with three 'Yae-beni-shidare' (double pendula) not really in bloom and one 'Beni-shidare' (single pendula) in full bloom. The singles come out before the doubles, so if you see a pendula that's not in bloom now, chances are it will be the double. Whew! You're done. You can hop the new Canada Line station just a block away.
Re: Riley Park Tea Swamp Park at 15th and Sophia is looking like spring with the 'Whitcomb' trees in full bloom. It's a short walk to 18th to see a few more 'Whitcomb' on the block east of Sophia. That's Meera Bains of CBC News in the second photo.
I'm getting lost today. This sweet 'Beni-shidare' is also in Mount Pleasant, on Ontario south of 6th Ave. It suits the house so well.
Re: Fairview 'Accolade' at the northwest corner of City Hall, viewed in early evening under the best surprise of the day -- sunshine! (Addendum: forgot to say I viewed these Friday, March 25th, 2011)
Our new map allows anyone to add markers for trees, which don't appear until I check them out and make sure they're really cherries. There have only been a few submitted so far, most of which have been plums, so I was sure this location at 7th and Glen across from China Creek Park would be, as I could see white and pink plums down the hill as I was approaching from Clark. But no, right where the submitter said it was, was this rather nice 'Accolade'. You can see the plums in the background. On the way, though, I found this corner apartment building with 'Akebono' lining both streets. There's a small community garden across the street with daffodils in bloom. This is at 8th and Keith, just east of Vancouver Community College. After the 'Accolade' at Glen, I continued west across St Catherines. Across from this totem sculpture was a nice looking old 'Somei-yoshino', on its own roots. Farther west on 7th to Guelph is the Mount Pleasant Elementary School. I thought from a distance these were 'Akebono', but only the two younger ones on the side of the building (in the background in the first photo) are. The older tree closer to the front of the building is 'Somei-yoshino'.
Apologies for my error (I hope I didn't confuse anyone with my original mis-identification of 'Tai-haku' and thank you to Douglas Justice & Wendy Cutler for correcting me and identifying this cultivar as 'Shirotae'. Between 8 and 10 trees are blooming at the corner of Yukon & West 10th, just north of the City Hall annex.
It's still a bit early for 'Tai-haku'. These trees are 'Shirotae'. Note the more or less horizontal branching, loosely hanging, semi-double flowers and green emerging leaves. 'Tai-haku' flowers are much larger, 5-petaled and borne on stiff pedicels. Leaves always emerge bronze and the crown shape is much more upright-spreading.
Thank you for the correction. I will correct the labels on the photographs. (Also, I think I've been looking at blossom too much this morning as I came up with a brand new cultivar name -- I originally meant to say 'Tai Haku'.)
This 'Yae-beni-shidare' at the corner of Yukon & West 11th (across from City Hall) is about 75% (or more) open now & would be lovely to view under blue or partly cloudy skies today. I took the photographs last evening during a lighter moment of the almost continual rain.
Blue skies & sunshine yesterday evening invited me outside right after work with the goal of viewing the blossoms at Queen Elizabeth Park. Didn't make it. So much to enjoy in Mount Pleasant between Yukon & Manitoba between 10th & 14th. In viewing order: 'Shirotae' - at the corner of the parking lot below the City Hall annex, Yukon & W10th; blossoms still looking beautiful despite all the rain on Sunday. I haven't taken photographs of them yet but it's worth noting in a small park just north of the old Heather Pavilion at VGH, there are five large 'Shirotei' trees, in groups of two and three. 'Yae-beni-shidare' - in front of the heritage house at Yukon & W11th; as I suspected, a blue sky makes all the difference (see previous day's photos for the contrast). 'Accolade' - one of several young, freshly planted street trees on W11th between Alberta & Columbia; still quite a few buds yet to open.
Kanzans on E 10th Ave. (between Glen and St. Catherines) Kanzans on East 10th Ave ( Photo taken: April 30th, 2011 ) Between Glen drive and St. Catherines street.
A month ago, in posting #34, I posted 'Akebono' on the block of 8th between Clark and Keith, just east of VCC, and wrapping the corner south on Keith. Yesterday, it was all 'Kanzan' there. It's like they redecorated for the next season. Actually, the 'Kanzan' on 8th are across the street from the 'Akebono', and on Keith, the 'Kanzan' are street trees, whereas the 'Akebono' are on the building property.
This is so heart-breaking. Such beautiful blossoms on these 'Pink Perfection' we can't help posting in a parking lot at Terminal and Quebec. At least when it's time to develop the lot, the trees will have all become avium and we won't be upset that they're removed. The first tree has only be beginnings of rootstock growth; the other two have only the last bits of "Pink Perfection' showing. There are a few other avium trees in the lot. I'm guessing they started out as 'Pink Perfection' too.
Photos from May 2 that I thought I'd posted. 7th is known for 'Kanzan' from Hemlock to Main and even farther east, but 6th has a lot of good 'Kanzan' plantings too. These are on 6th at Prince Albert, at 6th looking north on Fraser, and on 6th at Carolina. At what the sign I first read said was 5th and Prince Edward, but it turns out that across Prince Edward where the trees are is another sign saying 2nd and Prince Edward, are these two 'Shirofugen' with what surely was a third one in the centre. An artist friend thinks I need to appreciate more what I see rather than going on about what I'm not seeing, but I think three 'Shirofugen' would have looked really nice here. Surely this planting in the lane at 4th and Scotia is destined for trouble. There's room for the trunks of these 'Kanzan' to grow out about two inches.
A strange planting of five 'Shirofugen' on this light-industrial-area block of 4th east of Quebec, two together a bit larger than the others. When I first passed them, I was expecting they'd be a different cultivar, as they're less elegantly spreading than what I'd expect for 'Shirofugen'. This group is one of the first for this cultivar to get their green leaves this year. I'm assuming that's because of the generally warm location.
The 'Accolade' at City Hall were about 50% in bloom on Saturday evening. I'm not sure how much yesterday's unexpected cold & snow slowed them down but I suspect they'll be in their peak form for viewing very soon. (Confession: I actually prefer this earlier stage of blooming as I think branches with buds are quite lovely.)
I find this interesting, because I drove by yesterday (one day later) around 5pm, and from Cambie, they looked wonderful, so I figured 'Accolade' in this area was in bloom. Here I go acting like the festival director's friends (who ask her why trees aren't showing as in bloom on the festival map). That's why we need scouts on the streets.
'Beni-shidare' on Ontario at 6th. This tree has more blossoms open than the one on Yukon across from City Hall (which I haven't photographed yet).
