We had a long weekend here in Canada called Victoria Day where we celebrate Queen Victoria birthday. A long weekend / day off is hard to come by here in Canada so I took a full advantage of my long weekend and spent some time with my family + do some photoshoot. I found out about Sakura tree in High Park from googling around and we decided to pay a visit after several cancellations due to weather (Sigh… stupid rainy weather).
We went to High Park, a largest park in Toronto area. My sole purpose is to see the Sakura Tree and hopefully take some pictures with my figure. I brought along my Saber Lion nendoroid and recently acquired Horo by GSC to spend some time for photoshoot. To go to High Park, you have 2 options of either taking the subway to High Park subway station or drive there. We opted to ride the subway. If anyone happens to visit Toronto, I will gladly take you guys to High Park ^^.
The park itself is enormous and it took us approximately 15 to 20 minutes walk to get to the Sakura tree area which is located far inside the park but the views along the road are quite nice. As most of you may already know , Sakura tree only blooms for approximately 1 week of Spring so the best time to watch sakura tree would be the first week of end of April or May. I realized that I was little bit too late but was still hoping there were still some of them left.
The Sakura trees that we have in High Park are from many varieties which include Yoshino Sakura trees (Prunus x yedoensis), Akebono Sakura trees (Prunus x yedoensis ‘Akebono’) and Kwanzan ‘Fugenzo’ Sakura trees (Prunus serrulata ‘Fugenzo’). All of them seemed to bloom early and well known to have white flowers with pale pink near the stem.
Above is our proudly Maple Leaf tree and a national symbol of Canada.
Sakura tree in High Park is a symbol of friendship between Japan and Canada. Japan consulate general in Toronto gave Sakura tree to Toronto Major at that time and planted them there. There is a carved stone in the middle of Sakura tree area with little bit of history.
After a long walk, we managed to find 3-4 Sakura tree in one of the area (there are 2 areas where you can watch sakura tree if you look at the map above). We only went to one of the area (bottom left area) which happens to be the larger one in HIgh Parks
At this point, taking some photos of my Horo figure is somewhat impossible because i have to somewhat hang the figure on three and I don’t want to damage the tree branches due to the figure weight. My only option to take some photos of my Saber Lion nendoroid which is tiny enough so I can put it anywhere by the tree. It was quite windy and freezing when we were there due to nearby lake I was guessing.
Browse more photos can be found using the slideshow below:
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Really didn’t know that there are different kinds of sakura trees out there… Well that’s something new for me then~
So they reecive and plant sakura trees to show the diplomatic relationships and friendships between 2 nations? It makes sense as sakura is partly the symbol that represents Japan, just as panda does for China. Nice photos there, and I lol’ed at Saber Lion sitting hopeleesly on the trees ^^;
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Nice pictures. I always forget that we have sakura trees right here in Toronto. I’ve definitely got to check the park out this summer.
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@Q: There are many species out there and I just recently found out about that too. The most well-known one is the one with white flowers and pale pink near stem.
@Eternal: I think you have to wait for next year because Sakura trees only bloom during 1st week of spring. You may still have a chance to see some if you go there this week. Last time, I went there , there were only 3-4 trees left.
Hi ,
I came across your blog when I gave a google search ‘trees in high park’ (I wanted to go on an exploratory outing with my daughter and learn the names of typical canadian trees) and it was good to know about Sakura tree. On 1st of May this year I had visited high park with my wife and we were delighted to see the Sakura tree in full of white beautiful flowers – we did not know then that we were lucky to have seen it in bloom. I from India and we like going to places of natural beauty. Great photographs !
@Ashish: Thx for visiting my blog. I am glad that you found it useful and informative ^^