{"id":421,"date":"2007-04-12T22:15:44","date_gmt":"2007-04-12T13:15:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2007-04-12\/421"},"modified":"2007-04-12T22:15:44","modified_gmt":"2007-04-12T13:15:44","slug":"lots-of-blossoms-but-still-lots-of-buds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2007-04-12\/421","title":{"rendered":"Lots of Blossoms, but still Lots of Buds"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n

My blog has been filled with nothing but cherry blossoms for the past\nweek or so, because for the last week or so most cherry trees around here\nhave been hitting their blossom peak. The timing<\/span> of blooming, though, is\ncertainly not coordinated among Japan's cherry trees.<\/p>\n\n

According to Julia's Kitakami\nPhotoblog<\/a>, the blossoms aren't even close to making their appearance\nthere. Kitakami is a town<\/span> about 415 miles north-east<\/a> of Kyoto, and can be quite a bit<\/span>\ncolder than here.<\/p>\n\n

Even locally, the cherry-blossom season varies considerably. The other<\/span> day we drove a bit<\/span> north into the mountains, and just 12km (8 miles) away\nfound that the cherry blossoms hadn't yet started to bloom. I did find<\/span> some\nblossoms in what looks to be a plum<\/span> tree...<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f\/2.8 @ 200mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>320 sec, f\/5.6, ISO 200 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>Late Plum(?) Buds and a Few<\/span> Blossoms<\/span><\/div>\n\n\n

Of course, much depends on the species of tree, but if these are indeed\nplum trees, they're quite behind some we saw in the city<\/a> two\nmonths ago. One reason<\/span> for the delay, of course, is that it's colder in the\nmountains, and perhaps also because of the reduced sunlight. The mountains<\/span> aren't very tall, but are steep and the roads\/towns are deep in the\nvalleys. (The next picture is taken from the same spot as the one above,\nbut facing the opposite direction.)<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f\/2.8 @ 70mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>320 sec, f\/5, ISO 200 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>Typical Mountainside in Central Japan<\/span><\/div>\n\n

Going a further six miles into the mountains (not far from Kyoto's Road to Nowhere<\/a>),\nwe came across a cherry<\/span> tree with its own name (“100-Year Cherry Tree”),\nthat had not the slightest hint of a blossom.<\/span> It had huge<\/span> buds that were\nstill a good<\/span> two weeks away from blooming.<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f\/2.8 @ 55mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>60 sec, f\/8, ISO 250 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>Buds on the “100-Year Cherry Tree”<\/span><\/div>\n\n

This is the same day, mind you, that we earlier enjoyed the Amazing Cherry Blossoms in\nNorth-East Kyoto<\/a> back in the city.<\/p>\n\n

As an aside to those who read Japanese, I noticed<\/span> that they used an odd form of the kanji for “sakura”...<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f\/2.8 @ 55mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>100 sec, f\/8, ISO 250 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>Odd way to write “Cherry Tree”<\/span><\/div>\n\n

I checked Henshall<\/a>\nand Halpern<\/a>\nand didn't find anything to indicate that this form was archaic or\nanything. Fumie thinks that perhaps they wrote it this way just to be fun.\nAnyone have any ideas? I'm just curious<\/span>....<\/p>\n\n

(By the way, a cherry tree 100 years old is not really anything to boast\nabout. Most trees in Kyoto, I believe,<\/span> were brought here 150-ish years ago\nfrom Tokyo, as I mentioned\nin a previous<\/span> post<\/a>.)<\/p>\n\n

So anyway, I understand<\/span> that the discrepancy in when blossoms bloom can\nbe explained by location, climate, sun, species, but at times it also seems\nto vary wildly across different branches of the same tree. The next shot<\/span> is\nfrom the aforementioned “Amazing Cherry Blossoms<\/a>”\ntrip, showing one branch that's mostly unbloomed among many fully-engulfed\nbranches. Maybe it has to do with how water is distributed within the\ntree?<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f\/2.8 @ 200mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>750 sec, f\/8, ISO 200 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>Different Branches for Different Rates of Advances<\/span><\/div>\n\n\n

This can be seen quite often.<\/p>\n\n

Today I returned to the same bench area featured in the previous post<\/a> to try my\nhand at macro photography for the first time. Among the results are these\ntwo from the same tree....<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm with 68mm extension tube — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>180 sec, f\/13, ISO 320 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>Buds Waiting to Bloom<\/span><\/div>\n\n
<\/a>Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm with 68mm extension tube — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>90 sec, f\/11, ISO 320 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>Way Past Prime<\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My blog has been filled with nothing but cherry blossoms for the past week or so, because for the last week or so most cherry trees around here have been hitting their blossom peak. The timing of blooming, though, is certainly not coordinated among Japan's cherry trees.<\/p>

According to Julia's Kitakami Photoblog, the blossoms aren't even close to making their appearance there. Kitakami is a town about 415 miles north-east of Kyoto, and can be quite a bit colder than here.<\/p>

Even locally, the cherry-blossom season varies considerably. The other day we drove a bit north into the mountains, and [...]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,2,6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=421"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}