Sakura Watch April 21, 2018 - Spring is finally here and on this warm and sunny Saturday, High Park was full of happy people to enjoy it! With the weather now finally turning for the better over the coming week, sights are not set on seeing how quickly the trees will move into the next stages of development. Watch the latest video update from YouTube:

Well into second stage

The buds overall are well into the second development stage, especially along the big hill and winding path (near Grenadier Restaurant), with many more of them displaying round, green tips. This area is shaping up to have a terrific showing this year if the buds progress as they should in the weeks ahead.

Another observation has been seeing some trees showing more elongated, pointy buds instead of the usual well-shaped, round ones. In past years, elongated buds would go to leaf rather than blossom during the bloom. There is still a chance that some of these may be smaller blossom buds that were stunted by all the cold weather. Time will tell in the weeks ahead what can be expected.

See the photo gallery of today's visit:

Attention now on bloom dates

Now that it appears warmer days are finally here to stay, I can now focus on watching for signs of the next stages. More observations are needed to see when the trees will begin to develop further, but so far, early to mid-May still, seem like safe approximate target dates.

Hopefully the warmer weather forecast this will help improve the buds development times as the sooner they advance, the better chance of seeing more blossoms develop. Stay tuned for more updated soon!