A Toronto man whose passion project has been monitoring the growth of High Park’s cherry blossoms for over a decade expects to start seeing a bloom by the end of April or early May.
Steven Joniak, also known as “Sakura Steve” online, has been compelled by the yearly blooms, since he lived near High Park in 2006, and came across them by accident on a run. When he returned a few days later with his camera, all the blossoms had already started falling.
Unfortunately, the same thing happened the following year.
“It always seemed that I already had missed it,” Joniak told CP24.com. “It had already finished or there were leaves on the trees already.”
He found there wasn’t much information about the trees online at the time, so he dug further. Soon, he learned that the trees were Japanese Sakura, and places like Vancouver and Washington D.C. tracked the trees’ blooms.
“I thought, well that’s something that I could probably do here in Toronto,” he said.
Design background lead to blossom watch website
A web designer by trade, Joniak launched a website in 2012, which features photos of the cherry blossoms in different stages of bloom. He usually starts in March, when the buds first come out.
In his experience, if there is milder weather, the process of blooming will go by quicker. In 2012, for example, a mild winter led to blossoms blooming in mid-April. In 2016, a harsh winter with a poler vortex pushed back the blossom date far into May.
“The trees skipped the bloom altogether,” he remembers of that year. “There were hardly any blooms at all.”
As for this year, Joniak said things are on track for the end of the month, or early next month.
“We’re supposed to be in the double digits for close to the rest of the month, so that should help keep thing in line to have a bloom occur within the end of April or first week of May,” he said.
The different stages of bloom
Joniak shared that there are six stages of the blossom.
Stage 1 is when the buds are completely closed and are a dark brown or bronze colour. He said if they are more oval shaped, the blooms will be healthy.
Stage 2 is when the buds begin to show signs of opening. They’re larger and round, and green tips are beginning to show. Joniak noted that’s the stage the High Park cherry blossoms are currently in.
Stage 3 is when the green tips start to open a bit more and the florets inside start to be visible.
Stage 4 is when the florets come out of each bud.
“Each bud could have anywhere from four to six little florets coming out, and each floret will become an actual blossom,” Joniak said.
Stage 5 is when all the florets are fully extended and visible.
Stage 6 is the final stage when they actually open and bloom, and soon after fall off the tree.
Joniak said that final stage is also dependent on weather, as blooms can last up to 10 days if there’s not too much wind, rain or cold.
“On average, they last between three to five days,” he said. “Because they are very delicate and they are very sensitive to temperature and terrain, rainy, stormy weather will tend knock down the petals.”
