It was "Our Day of Destiny" at VanDusen today. We met Anne Eng, Joey and a Tibetan. What more could one ask for?
I got it as we were walking up to it from the grass [Edited]Willard points out that I quoted from her last year's posting. Yesterday she had no trouble noticing the "supreme fragrance".
Here is a beautiful 'Beni-shidare', behind a hedge in the front lawn of a house at Pine and Cedar Crescent. I saw the flowers, but didn't manage a photo in focus. They're single blossoms.
I love the hairy stems. I'm definitely going to have to feature buds with raindrops on the Blooming Now - Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival page.
It's there now as I'm typing this, but will only be there for one day - I have too many good photos to showcase. Here's what it looked like: The photos are in the Blossoms - Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival photo gallery.
Single 'Somei-yoshino' at Pine Crescent and Maple Crescent. At least I think it is a 'Somei-yoshino'. t
I really thought these would be out for Sakura Days this weekend. At least there's some colour, better than if they were finished. They might even look good by Sunday.
What a difference a day makes! They looked spectacular today (Saturday), what I could see through the raindrops. At least no pesky sun washing out the colour. If you go to Sakura Day on Sunday, wear good high waterproof boots. The ground is very yucky.
VanDusen on April 30. I went to see the 'Jo-nioi', but first, here is only the third 'Royal Burgundy' reported in the whole lower mainland. It looks more like the third photo than the second one - very dark leaves that look better with the pink 'Kanzan'-looking flowers than 'Kanzan' looks with its bronze leaves. But some of us have misgivings about this cultivar - after the flowers are gone, just dark leaves remain. We already have 18,000 or so purple-leaved plums. Do we really want to add a lot of purple-leaved 'Royal Velvet' trees around town? 5x3 meters in 20 years, according to the first website I checked. Ha! It grows one meter on every website I check - It's up to 7 meters now. OK, the 'Jo-nioi', just past peak bloom three days ago. Very fragrant. 'Ichiyo' was looking perfect. 'Shogetsu' was open with its white flowers and green leaves; 'Shiro-fugen' was not open yet, was looking very bronze in comparison. It's hard to believe these two cultivars reach a stage where they seem to look identical. In this photo, 'Shiro-fugen' is at the left of the photo, 'Shogetsu' is above it (in the photo, not in the garden) at the right.
The 'Beni-shidare' at VanDusen look excellent today. I was optimistic about their looking good next week for Sakura Days, but now with the weather forecast four degrees warmer and rainy all week, I'm not at all certain. The 'Snow Goose' is in bloom.
Prunus 'Shirotae' at VD. First pic in the rain on Thursday, second this afternoon in the sun. Smell was lovely (almonds?) and all very white right now. One of the Arakawa cherries that mayor Kengu Shimizu planted along the Arakawa river in Japan in 1880 in order to extend the Hamani festival beyond the bloom time of the Somei Yoshino cherries. (from Kuitert's book) "Shirotae" is the name of a white cloth made from the fibers of the bast (inner bark) of the paper mulberry. Van Dusen also has the paper mulberry in the fern del -Broussonetia papyrifera- -(also Kuitert's book)
Prunus 'Ukon' unfortunately this year this tree is missing its label. 1979-1420. so tree at VD dates from 1979. buds just coming out. yellow green but will fade to pink. Ukon means tumeric. The 3 greenish forms are very old (Ukon, Gyoiko and Asagi) and appear in a description of cherries at Ninna-Ji Temple found in a tourist guide of Kyoto from 1780 (Kuitert's book)
Prunus x schmittii, not a Japanese cherry and you can see why. The upturned sepals, but i loved the way the sun was shining on it and the petals are so petite i couldn't help taking a pic....or 2... .