Blooming Now — Read the latest updates on cherry blossoms, including blooming dates, prime locations, and tips for capturing stunning photos. Follow our cherry scouts, as we share firsthand insights and ensures you never miss a moment of the blossoms’ beauty. Whether you’re planning a visit or simply admiring from afar, this page is your go-to resource for all things cherry blossoms.
Latest Updates
April 24, 2024. We’re getting down to the wire – only the very late bloomers still have flowers worth a visit: avium ‘Plena’, ‘Shiro-fugen’, and ‘Kiku-zakura’ – the chrysanthemum cherry. These light pink flowers are smaller than the other double-flowered blossoms featured recently, but they have 75 to 100 tiny petals to start, and then they get even more petals when they start showing second-story flowers developing from their centres. At this point, the aging pink flowers are fading, and the new flowers appear with dark pink buds opening to the mature light pink colour. These trees are small, with a distinctive goblet shape filled in by somewhat straight crossing limbs.
The photo below is an unusual capture of the sepals of the second story flower before its petals have even developed.
You can find blossom photos with descriptions that were featured here at Blog – Yesterday’s news and more – Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival (vcbf.ca).
Scouts have shared their finds on our forums at VCBF Neighbourhood Blogs | UBC Botanical Garden Forums. You can search for cultivar locations on the festival map at Neighbourhood Maps (vcbf.ca).
You can find the new 2014 enlarged edition of the indispensable guide to Ornamental Cherries in Vancouver, written by Douglas Justice, Associate Director & Curator of Collections at UBC Botanical Garden. Purchase the full eBook version here on our Shop.
International Cherry Blossom Prediction Competition
Submissions are in from the international prediction competition, “When will the cherry trees bloom in 2024?”. The predicted date for ‘Akebono’ trees studied from Vancouver (Maple Grove Park in Kerrisdale) was April 3, just four days earlier than last year’s peak bloom. You can read about the predictions at https://competition.statistics.gmu.edu/.
The contestants were not aware that we would have a week of unseasonably warm weather in March, which has caused all our cherry trees to bloom early. The peak bloom for our contest trees has been announced as March 23, 2024. You can see photos of the blooming progression at Yesterday’s news – 2024 International Cherry Blossom Prediction Competition – Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival (vcbf.ca).
Festival Favourites
Some of our festival favourite photo-op locations were shown here during the bloom season with current year photos and the approximate blooming dates. Red markers on our festival map show all our favourite locations. When we talk about Festival Favourites, we mean you will be happy you made the trip to see them to photograph them. When you’re there, remember the neighbours:
1) do not climb the trees
2) do not break the branches
3) be respectful of the residents who live on the street
4) do not stop in the middle of the street
5) keep your visit to a max of 15mins (cause really, how long does it take to snap a few photos?)
6) stay on city property, do not go on private property
7) try to stay off the grass, especially if you are wearing heels.
Mostly – be respectful to the environment and the residents. Remember that it is the residents who are responsible for caring for those trees.
Learn How to Take Cherry Blossom Photos with your phone thanks to Cakewalk Media for the tips!
Festival Favourites in Bloom
Below is a sampling of the festival favourite photo-op locations posted on our forums. You too can become a Cherry Scout and share photos with us – see Cherry Scouts – Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival (vcbf.ca).