Cherry Blossom Season in Vancouver

The pink blossoms are beautifying Vancouver

Vancouver is deep in cherry blossom season, with lots of fluffy pink blobs covering trees around the city.

After having recently returned from Tokyo where I saw some sakura, I am biased when I say the ones in Vancouver are much prettier!

The cherry blossoms in my neighbourhood

Our city is celebrating 100 years of cherry blossoms, as it was in 1925 when the mayors of Kobe and Yokohama presented the Vancouver Park Board with 500 trees of the Ojochin variety to plant at the cenotaph in Stanley Park in honour of the Japanese-Canadian veterans of World War I.

Then from the 1930s to the 1950s, the Park Board planted cherry tree seeds that were donated by Japanese Canadians, around Vancouver. 

Three hundred more cherry trees were donated in 1958 by the Japanese consul Muneo Tanabe as a symbol of friendship between Canada and Japan. The trees were planted along Cambie Street, between 33rd and 49th avenues, in Queen Elizabeth Park and around the cenotaph in Stanley Park.

In 1990 the Park Board did a comprehensive inventory of street trees and found nearly 36 percent of the 89,000 trees on city streets were flowering plum and cherry trees. 

Fluffy pink popcorn on trees

Every year Vancouver has the Cherry Blossom Festival, encouraging residents to check out the city in pink, write haiku and have a picnic, and learn more about cherry trees.

Despite the rain earlier this week, most of the cherry blossoms managed to hang onto their branches, dry off and continue to beautify the city. They and magnolias are also a treat to look at these days. Magnolia are also fleeting, as once they bloom, the petals fall off and that's the end of the season.

Cherry blossoms remind us to stop and appreciate the beauty around us, even if it might cause those of us with pollen allergies to have some sneezing episodes!

A Warm Visit to Bloedel Conservatory

The Bloedel Conservatory this afternoon

It's been a miserable several days in Vancouver with rain and cold temperatures, but today the sun peeked out of the clouds and they were blown away to reveal and gorgeous blue sky.

I took a friend for lunch to celebrate her birthday at Seasons in the Park and the view of the city was so clear. 

Afterwards we took a stroll around the quarry garden before checking out the Bloedel Conservatory, a large domed indoor tropical garden. 

Valentine is a charming parrot

It was named after Prentice Bloedel, who was co-founder of Macmillan Bloedel, British Columbia's biggest forestry company in the mid-20th century. He pitched in C$1.4 million to build the conservatory, fountains and surrounding plaza.

The "triodetic" dome design was inspired by the Expo '67 dome in Montreal. Its diameter is 140 feet across and was made from aluminium pipe triangles and 1,500 plexiglass bubbles. The design was conceived in 1966 and was officially opened in 1969. Over half a million people visited it the first year.

In 2009 the Parks Board voted to closer the conservatory because of low attendance, but with the Winter Olympics coming up, several groups formed to save it. The following year it was taken under the wing of the VanDusen Botanical Garden, which is why VanDusen members can go into the conservatory for free.

Inside there was lots to see, from lots of plants and flowers to birds, particularly parrots and cockatoos.

There were lots of hydrangeas and posies, but also orchids that flourished in the warm and humid environment. Looking up there were banana trees with their large rectangular-shaped leaves and their trunks were very smooth to the touch!

Lovely orchids in the indoor garden

We also enjoyed watching the various birds in the domed garden. A few were allowed to roam around freely, though the parrots were either chained to their posts (with umbrellas nearby to block the sun). Carmen and Maria are colourful green-winged macaws, while Kramer is a lovely dusted pink cockatoo. 

Valentine is another parrot who showed off his wings to us, while Rudy is an African grey parrot who who made wolf whistle sounds to my friend! We tried to teach him wei? in Cantonese but he didn't seem to pick it up!