Spring in Ottawa is full of pink petals, few from cherry blossoms

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The Rosybloom line includes more than twenty cultivars, most named for Canadian lakes. Hardy, insect-pollinated, and frost-tolerant, they became a spring fixture throughout the Farm (especially along Prince of Wales).

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Crabapples typically bloom about a week or two after cherry trees, depending on the weather. The Arboretum includes a few Japanese cherry varieties, like Sargent cherry, planted near the north end of the parking lot. But in sheer volume, the crabapples outnumber. Their coordinated blooms create one of Ottawa’s most photographed spring displays.

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Eric Jones, project director with Friends of the Farm, holds a bloom from one of the Arboretum’s flowering trees. The group recently revived its volunteer-led “bloom time” tracking effort to monitor how Ottawa’s spring is shifting with the climate. Photo by Jean Levac /POSTMEDIAArticle content

“The next couple of weeks are going to see a lot of action,” said Jones. “Certainly by mid-May, there will be an awful lot in blossom. That will be a peak time.”

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Tree flowering at the Central Experimental Farm is spread out over six weeks, with species following different biological clocks based on how they reproduce and respond to spring conditions.

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“The trees that come into bloom do so based on a mix of temperature, sunlight, and evolutionary strategy,” said Jones. “If they all bloomed at once, they’d be competing for pollinators. So the timing is staggered. Some are wind-pollinated and bloom early, while others, like the flowering cherries, wait for the insects.”

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By early May, wind-pollinated trees like red and silver maples, elms, poplars, and willows have already started flowering. Yellow dogwoods and forsythia appear next, followed by magnolias, which are among the last to open.

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“The ornamental magnolias mostly come from Southeast Asia… and they’re really very showy flowers,” said Jones. “They actually evolved before bees, so their pollinators were beetles. You’ll start to see more of them in the next week or two.”

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Jones holds a magnolia bloom along one of eight routes mapped in Pathway to the Trees of the Central Experimental Farm. The guide includes seasonal tips for identifying trees and is available online or through the Ottawa Public Library. Photo by Jean Levac /POSTMEDIAArticle content

Friends of the Farm recently revived their “bloom time” team to track when trees flower across the property. The volunteer-led effort had been on pause since the pandemic, but is now part of a renewed push to monitor how climate change is altering the timing and progression of spring in Ottawa.

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“There’s no doubt the climate is changing things,” said Jones. “Some of the trees that didn’t survive here 30 years ago might survive now. And trees that used to bloom in late May are blooming weeks earlier.”

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In Tokyo, cherry trees reached their first bloom on March 24 this year — five days ahead of 2024. While still within the expected range, Yamasaki said the trend has been moving steadily earlier.

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Shifting bloom times have complicated the logistics of cherry festivals in Japan, where the tradition of hanami, flower viewing, has been practiced for centuries.

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Yamasaki encourages Ottawans to take part in their own version.

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“Hanami marks the arrival of new beginnings,” she said. “In Japan, people gather with family and friends beneath the sakura trees. We encourage people to do the same, even in small ways, when cherry blossoms bloom in Ottawa.”

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Welcoming the season with crabapple blossoms might just do the trick, too.

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