Princes Park is beautiful, especially at this time of year. We found it at its peak of Cherry blossom, making it a very good place for me to continue learning to distinguish the tree varieties, partly by colour and form (with the aid of Mitchell’s Field Guide, 1976) and also by the timing, as they bloom in five waves. In Stanley Park two weeks ago we were in second group “Early”, which included the Yoshino Cherry, and now we are in the third, called “Early-mid”. A particular star of this third group is the Great White Cherry, ‘Tai-haku’. I have never knowingly seen one, but according to the tree map from the Friends of Princes Park, there is a group of young ones near the children’s playground. An exciting prospect.
Near the Princes Road entrance is their showpiece Cherry Walk. The white ones along the path appear to be Mount Fuji cherries, ‘Shirotae’, while the pink ones just starting to come out are of the next, fourth wave, ‘Kanzan.
Above the lake is a meadow of Cowslips.
Birds were calling everywhere, some seen, some not – Nuthatch, Greenfinch, Long-tailed Tit, Robin, Chiffchaff, Ring-necked Parakeets, and the ubiquitous Wood Pigeons, Crows and Magpies. A Moorhen was on a branch over the lake, silhouetted against the golden light on the reeds.
Many broadleaf trees were starting to leaf, including this brightly-coloured Indian Horse Chestnut, tree number 227.
As we came past the reeds on the east side we found a motionless Heron, standing so unnaturally still that after a minute or so we began to think it might be a sculpture. Then it blinked.
There weren’t many other lake birds, just small numbers of Coot, Moorhen, Mallard and Canada Geese. By the Belvidere road entrance a lady arrived intent on feeding the gulls. A flock came to her immediately, so she must be a regular. Her clients included Herring Gulls and Lesser Black-backed gulls, with some juveniles.
Nearby, next to the railing, were three small white-blossomed Cherry trees. Numbers 509/10/11. They had very big white flowers, all white. My four fingers are 7 cm across and these blossoms stretched right across them. Were they the fabled Great White Cherry? They are said to have the largest flowers of any cherry, 6-8 cm across. These weren’t the trees listed on the Friends’ map, so I thought I had stumbled across some unlisted ones.
We later looked at the tree list on the signboard and it said those trees were variety ‘Ukon’. But ‘Ukon’ is in the next time group, the fourth, so it shouldn’t be fully out yet. ‘Ukon’ is also supposed to be semi-double, petals coloured greenish-yellow at first, and have yellow-brown young leaves. That’s not what I saw. The Great Whites, however, are in the current flowering group, described as pure white and single, having deep red young leaves. I think the ones called ‘Ukon’ might really be Great Whites ‘Tai-haku’. Just to add that the flowers of ‘Ukon’ are merely described as “large”, with no measurements, but the implication is that they aren’t as large as the Great White, because THEY are definitely listed as the largest.
After lunch we went to see the acknowledged Great Whites by the children’s playground, numbers 614-618. They looked the same as the others to me, the ones said to be “Ukon”.
One last Cherry tree I wanted to see was their tree 309, listed as “Mount Fuji, Longipes.” That’s odd because Mitchell’s tree book, the Collins tree guide and Wikipedia all suggest that the Mount Fuji cherry is ‘Shirotae’, the white one in the Cherry walk. ‘Longipes’ is quite different, pink-budded and late. At the spot on the map where 309 ought to have been was a tree which fitted the description of ‘Longipes’, but had no tree number post. The QR code seemed to be saying it was number 29, which isn’t part of the current numbering system. But it’s on the old map of 2017 as 29, listed (again wrongly, I think) as Mount Fuji Cherry ‘Longipes’ Prunus shimidsu. The nomenclature clearly isn’t fully fixed. Here are the buds of ‘Longipes’, pink bells hanging on very long stalks. It is one of the last cherries to flower and will blossom white.
The Magnolias were out, too. Here’s one that looks like it has been prepared for a botanical illustration.
Public transport details: Bus 75 from Elliot Street at 10.01, arriving Princes Avenue / Kingsley Road at 10.16. Returned from Princes Road / Princes Gate West on 75 at 2.20, arriving City Centre at 2.30.
Next week we plan to go to Wallasey Central Park, meeting Sir Thomas Street at 10.00.