I'm not sure where this thread belongs yet, but it should probably just get started and when my organizational skills click in, I'll move it if necessary. Mariko suggested that in Neighbourhood Blogs, we should have a thread where scouts can post a link to locations they think are special enough to be festival favouites. So reply here with the name of the Neighbourhood where your candidate is posted and the posting number from the upper right corner. Put in a link if you want, or I'll add the links.
Oppenheimer Park is my Scout Favourite, not only because of the beauty of the cherry trees, but because of the history of the neighbourhood and of the trees themselves. Not sure what exactly the history of the trees is, but I think it has something to do with being donated by the Royal family of Japan. [edited by wcutler: see several posts about these trees in Strathcona]
I don't have any history with this forum, or with the Cherry Blossom Festival, and I don't know anything about the different varieties of ornamental cherries. However I work in the Downtown Eastside, and drive by Oppenheimer Park every day. The cherries there are spectacular right now. There is a cluster at the south end of the park that are quite mature, very gracious, lovely shapes, and are now pretty much in full bloom. See my photos from a couple of days ago that Wendy Cutler posted. There is another variety of cherries planted in a row cutting diagonally across the park. These are clearer much younger trees. I should remember when they were planted (some time in the last few years?) but I confess I didn't notice. They will be looking spectacular, I predict, in about another week. I would think these trees would deserve the status of Festival Favourites. I understand they have an interesting and significant history, and this park serves as the community living room to a lot of people in the neighbourhood.
There's a great street of young who-knows-what on Prince Edward at 61st. They look like Akebonos, but are bright pink. I'm hoping they get identified. Photos are in the Sunset Neighbourhood. Also nearby on E 54th from St George to Prince Edward is a good-looking street of old Akebonos. They're pictured in the same posting.
My favourites now are Kitsilano Beach Park to Vanier Park area and Marine Cr. & W 50th area. I think Kitsilano Beach Park is always beautiful on fine days, but it’s most beautiful with cherry blossoms. Also you can see rather rare cherries like Oshima, Stellata and Spires. You can compare Somei-Yoshino and Akebono, too. (see the Kitsilano thread) But compared to the area, numbers of cherries are not a lot. So when you walk the beautiful park enjoying the scenery, you'll sometimes find beautiful cherries. Marine Cr. & W 50th is a bit different. It’s only a very small area totally less than 200m, but you can see many kinds of early to mid blooming cherry trees. A lots of Accolades and 3 Pandoras are in full bloom and very beautiful now. Somei-Yoshinos are also at peak. Young Akebonos are getting very beautiful. Only 1 Washino-o is just started blooming. 2 Yae-beni-shidares at a private garden are blooming day by day. Only 1 whitcomb, 2 kinds of purple-leafed plums and green-leafed white plums on 50th are finishing now. But in one or 2 weeks you can see wild cherries, too. (See the Kerrisdale thread) It’ll be very beautiful days this week, so please visit those areas if you have time.
Re: Scout Favourites - Pandoras Four or five private Pandora trees lining the front of a property on Arbutus south of 51st are what Mariko described "One of the healthiest looking Ornamental cherries in Vancouver!! , and Douglas commented "They are extremely beautiful specimens". I've posted them in Kerrisdale and also in Cultivar IDs.
The Akebonos and Somei-yoshinos in Queen Elizabeth Park look stunning. Everyone should know to try to get to see them. See Mariko's posting in Riley Park. In the same neighbourhood, in one of the following postings, there is a street of Uminekos that's pretty impressive, on Sophia at 20th.
A huge Somei-Yoshino near the corner of Prince Edward and Woodstock is worth viewing this weekend. It is much taller than a 2-storied house. It looks not grafted. The trunk is more than 40 cm in diameter. It looks much older than UBC or Cambie Somei-Yoshinos (planted in 1967). I'm Japanese and I have seen a lot of Somei-Yoshino in my life. (Most of the cherries in Tokyo Metropolitan Area are Somei-Yoshino.) But I haven’t seen any tree as huge as this. I wonder how old it is. Usual life-span of Somei-Yoshino is said to be 60 years. But this tree might be more than 60 years old. Or there are some reasons it can grow very big. Also the great Somei-Yoshino in Queen Elizabeth Park must be a very old tree. Most of famous huge cherry trees in Japan are Shidare-zakura (weeping cherry) or Edo-higan-zakura which can live hundreds or thousands years. (The Oldest cherry tree in Japan is an Edo-Higan which is estimated to be between 1800 and 2000 years old. But I haven’t seen any very old cherries.)
Led by Alex Downie, twenty more people walked in Queen Elizabeth Park, Vancouver to explore the beauty of cherry blossom and a few big trees, on April 19, 2009. I have made a slideshow for the trip. Take a look. __________________________ Dingren & Martin :)
Cherry trees with their own buildings and even their own cars; reminiscent of a time when they had their own settlements and travellers would return to their "home cherry" rather than their home town.
Somebody should be measuring the bigger ones up there and posting their sizes, so that the information is at least recorded/publicized via the forum if nowhere else. It would also help judge the significance of each relative to one another within Vancouver. For example, at some point the Festival could name specific individuals as the largest in town - or maybe the largest recorded for the whole continent, if any turned out to be such. Jacobson, North American Landscape Trees (1996, Ten Speed Press, Berkeley) lists these records for Prunus x yedoensis: 55' x 12'0" x 56' Chevy Chase, MD (1990) 41' x 9'6" x 65' Seattle, WA (1993)
Ron, do you know who's into tree measuring up here? I could try to enlist them as scouts to check out the ones we think are noteworthy.
The eight Shogetsu trees on the east side of the Bayshore Hotel are the first grouping of Shogetsu trees we've found in Vancouver. There was also a group of nine Shogetsu posted in Richmond.
For comparatively short and small trees like these all you need is a tape, a notebook, a stick and/or a good eye - the latter can develop fairly rapidly with experience. Robert Van Pelt's Champion Trees of Washington State (1996, University of Washington Press, Seattle) has an essay and drawings showing how to measure trees without fancy gear.
The dozen Shirofugens (with some Kanzan help) watch over the living and the dead at Mountainview Cemetery, E. 41 and Prince Edward,on May 2, 2009.
Here's the only chance to see five large, mature Tai Haku trees flowering together in one location. Along W. 66th Avenue, west of Adera (first street west of Granville). In bloom on April 8, 2013.
Re: White Rock / South Surrey [Edited by wcutler: I've copied Nadia's posting to this thread, as I think both these trees are extraordinary.] Huge Ukon tree at 18aAve near Amble Green Dr. and very beautiful Shirotae
Pink Perfection, outstanding site in Burnaby (NE Patterson and Mayberry). In bloom at April 17, 2020.
The Ukon grove on the west side of Yew, south of W. 42nd, in various stages of bloom at April 20, 2020. Blossoms memorable this year with their green stripes on creamy petals with light red shading in the centre.
My favourites are the ones I've copied into this thread in Ornamental Cherries: Appreciation: - Cherries that look like real trees
The Afterglow trees on Elgin Street (Kensington, April 4, 2021) were in fine form this year at the beginning of April and so were able to share their bloom with Akebono.
