Toronto blooming cherries, plums, and magnolias

Reasons to visit Mount Pleasant Cemetery in the spring

Prunus "Accolade" in bloom

When you really think about it, a cemetery is a great place to appreciate trees any time of the year. I don't find it morbid at all!

Right now, members of the Prunus genus are strutting their stuff, to mix metaphors, and since my last post "Sakura dreams: Cherry blossoms at the University of Toronto" seems popular, why not give the reading public more of what they want? My family and I spent a few hours bike riding (them) and staring at the spring blooms (me) recently on a beautiful afternoon at the cemetery. I think this beats going to the mall any day!

Prunus "Accolade"
 Japanese Flowering Cherry blooms
at Mount Pleasant Cemetery

Japanese Flowering Cherry blooms
Prunus "Accolade"
at Mount Pleasant Cemetery 

Japanese Flowering Cherry
Prunus "Accolade" sakura blooms
at Mount Pleasant Cemetery 

Mount Pleasant Cemetery
Japanese Flowering Cherry
 Prunus "Accolade" sakura blossoms

Prunus "Accolade"
Japanese Flowering Cherry blooms
 at Mount Pleasant Cemetery 

Prunus "Accolade"
Japanese Flowering Cherry
sakura blooms at Mount Pleasant Cemetery 

Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Toronto rivals any local arboretum. Many visitors jog, ride their bikes, pay their respects, and a few, like me, wander around appreciating the foliage and flowers. Spring and fall are special times to visit for the botanically-inclined.

The "Amanogawa" tree above is a memorial for this gentleman who I think, um, was a Who fan. The label is actually incorrect as "Amanogawa" is very columnar. (My best guess is this is Prunus "Accolade".)

Food for thought: if you were to pick a memorial tree for yourself, what would it be and why?

Fleeting beauty, eternal rest

Nearby, a Leonard Messel magnolia (Magnolia x loebneri "Leonard Messel")  was in full bloom.

I didn't crop out the statue and marker since the grave does reinforce the idea that the blooms, like ourselves, are only here for a short time. We might as well enjoy ourselves and others while the opportunity exists!

Smells heavenly! Prunus americana 
(American or wild plum) in full bloom

I don't find the Japanese flowering cherries very fragrant. This can't be said for the several weeping American plums found in the cemetery. Prunus americana  has a sweet odour and the specimens here were covered by pollinators (bees and flies that are, bad pun intended, wanna-bees) hungry for nectar.

Detail of American plum blooms 

American Plum (Prunus americana)
blooms at Mount Pleasant Cemetery

American Plum (Prunus americana)
spring blooms at Mount Pleasant Cemetery 

American Plum (Prunus americana)
spring flowers at Mount Pleasant Cemetery 

Prunus americana (American Plum)
spring blooms at Mount Pleasant Cemetery

Weeping American Plum (Prunus americana)
blooms at Mount Pleasant Cemetery

My two special blossoms tucked in there

Sakura Dreams: Cherry Blossoms at the University of Toronto

Beauty and the Beast at the St. George campus 

You would never be fooled into thinking that you were walking along the shore of Tidal Basin in Washington, D.C. or in picnicking in the hanami style in Kyoto but on a crisp spring day with a brilliant blue sky in Toronto, many were marvelling at the sights and smells of 70 cherry trees with heavily laden pure white blossoms. 

And, lucky for you,  I was among them!

Detail of  Prunus x yedoensis blooms

Fortunately for the good citizens of Toronto and few University of Toronto undergrads who notice, the Consulate General of Japan donated these and many other flowering cherry trees through the Sakura Project to grace a formerly non-descript pathway. I was on my way to Chinatown with my son for dinner when these "floating clouds" mesmerized me. Knowing how fleeting the scene is and how short-lived the blooms are, I was compelled to return and take many photos.

Side view of allee

Looking down the allee 

The path runs diagonally and bisects two roughly triangular pieces of lawn and is beside the University of Toronto's Robarts Library. It is a perfect site for an allee but what types of trees would be suitable? As you know by now, I'm an unrepentant ornamentalist so with the usual caveats of ornamental cherries being short-lived, pest and disease magnets out of the way, of course something beautiful had to be planted!

Above is the view looking south-east. The monster library is situated on the left.

Won't this be incredible once the canopy entwines?

Sakura Japanese Flowering Cherry
Yoshino blooms at University of
Toronto's Robarts Library 

Hungry visitors gorging on nectar

Not only was I knocked out by the sheer number of flowers but there was a noticeable scent as well. Bees were everywhere! I wonder where their hives are amid the concrete and asphalt of downtown life?


You can imagine that before these trees were planted, this was more or less a runway strip. You just kept your eyes on the ground and bore right through getting to class! Well, I did anyway.

Prunus x yedoensis Japanese Flowering Cherry
Yoshino allee: part of the Sakura Project
at University of Toronto's Robarts Library

Amazing bark (I'm a bark guy!)

While not every tree had this example of smooth and shiny bark, I wanted to show you another beautiful and under-appreciated aspect of Prunus. This was above the graft and, in fact, all the root stocks had a dull gray matte look to their trunks.

Natural beauty vs. Neo-Brutalist architecture

This picture juxtaposes the natural ornamental foreground of the cherry branches with the library in the background. I don't know whether the students call the John P. Robarts Research Library "Fort Book" today but when I was a grad student, oh, 20 years ago, I practically lived in the stacks of this imposing and unfriendly-looking structure. 

The cherries try their best to humanize the space and for a couple of weeks out of the year, they do indeed!

Allee with Japanese flowering cherries in bloom  

Click here for prominent Japanese Flowering Cherry planting sites in the City of Toronto for the Sakura Project.