By Lorette Houben

Enchanting pink blossom season is here, with glimpses of exquisite flowers being spotted on the streets and avenues of Collingwood in early spring. Quite a few of the main boulevards, such as E 22nd Avenue and Rupert, have older trees with masses of pink blooms in April, while other streets have lighter blossoms earlier in March. Some of the trees are plum, and some are cherry. These are ornamental trees, meaning the blossoms are pleasing to look at, but won’t produce fruit.

“In 1925, the mayors of Kobe and Yokohama presented the Vancouver Park Board with five hundred trees of the Ojochin variety for planting at the cenotaph in Stanley Park, in honour of Japanese Canadian veterans of WWI.” (Source: vcbf.ca)

Austrey Avenue, located behind St. Mary’s Church at Joyce and Euclid, has two rows of magnificent cherry trees in the 3300 block. This is one of the most stunning sights to see in Vancouver in spring! I’d always wondered when these trees were planted, and what variety they were. According to a Holmes report-planting record, which I acquired a few years ago, the year was 1969. The information is on page 25 and gives the name of the gorgeous trees, Akebono Cherry. The report lists trees planted on boulevards in Vancouver from 1926 to 1927 and gives a summary of all types of trees; birch, chestnut, elm, etcetera for a total of 1,710 trees.

The next section in the report is from 1969 onwards. The report is typed in pdf format. There were eighteen Akebono Cherry trees on Austrey Avenue in total. As of 2025, eighteen trees remain but one has been replaced recently. Also in 1969, twenty-two Cherry Whitcombie trees were planted in the 3300 block of Clive Avenue, just one block to the North from Austrey, but they are all gone as of 2025. Make sure you get out and enjoy the beauty of the pink trees, which Vancouver has enjoyed for 100 years! (Source: vcbf.ca)