IMG_2762-1-3, originally uploaded by hypersapiens.

Friends and fellow Toronto photography buffs know that for many of us the annual cherry blossom viewing in High Park represents the first breath of spring. Always on or about the first of May, the thousand-odd trees in the park open their petals and create a fragrant ceiling of white branches. I’ve been going to Toronto’s High Park hanami annually for over a decade now, partly for photos, but mostly to enjoy the temporal fragrance and atmosphere of this a once-a-year event.

Unfortunately, I’m sick of it. Not only is it horrendously overshot, in order to get an eyeline that doesn’t have another body in it, you now have to either shoot directly upwards or show up at 6AM. (Or shoot at night, long exposure. Do I really want to hang around High Park at night? Well no, not since that incident a decade back with the guy in the trees. It’s not a real Midsummer Night’s Dream there if you get my drift. Muggers, lurkers and angry geese. Plus, there’s the skunks.)

Can you relax under those lovely trees and compose fragrant thoughts, while all around you families squall and couples neck and scratch the bark? It might be a sure sign of spring in Toronto, but— I must argue— as a photographic or even cultural event*, it’s a washout.

Drinking up the clouds,
It spews out cherry blossoms -
Yoshino Mountain.
-Yosa Buson (1716 ~ 1783)

Or, the 2010 version:
Drinking under trees
That spew screaming children
High Park hanami flops

Frustrated by the growing shortcomings of this annual hanami haunt, I started a comprehensive cherry hunt of the Toronto area last year. Motivated by filming for a documentary, driven by photo frenzy and general otakudom, I visited all the parks in TO and the surrounding area rumored or reputed to have cherries— searching for the perfect cherry blossom viewing and photoshoot location.

Alas, around here, there was not much to tell.

In the sakura department, Edwards Gardens sadly disappointed: although well manicured and rich in other seasons, other than a couple sparse magnolias and crabapples, in early spring it was not a happy place to be.

The U of T and York campuses had only a few trees. Those at the St. George campus were still young and more ornamental than the mature trees started at High Park in ‘59.

At the start of the season, Kariya (Mississauga's postage-stamp sized Japanese garden of goodies) offered only a few small white cherry trees, already dropping. The luscious pink kanzan zakura and white hanging shidarezakura had not yet begun.

And High Park? High Park was insane.

The first day we made the attempt (on a Sunday, high noon) the Promise ambient music festival was playing… A relatively new annual event; think DJ culture X Toronto party scene X hanami happening; add every DSLR owner in Toronto and mix. Holy frick. There were no spots left to park; even the no-parking road margins were full, and the parking enforcers doing brisk business writing tickets for every vehicle in the row. Traffic was at a standstill due to the volume of pedestrians wandering dazedly across on the road. Beneath the trees in one small area were thousands of people, dancing or sitting, ass-bombing the once-beautiful petal carpet of the park. Witness this 2009 photo by Alexander Synapse of Ektoplazm.com for reference… or this year’s shot by Scott Snider (Sniderscion). Contrast them with the image below from the same "peak season" weekend in 1999. Just... no.

But I wasn’t willing to miss a season. The next evening I returned to find parking equally nonexistent. I left the car in a neighbourhood nearby and hiked around Grenadier Pond. The park was lovely, but only a little less over-run. (It’s just not fun when every photo you take of sakura includes multiple other photographers shooting photos of sakura. Everybody’s shots start to look the same. After a couple years it loses its lustre. Nowadays it’s like eating photo ass, frankly.)

Knowing that I will never actually get to Japan to breathe deep the rarified air of Mount Yoshino and utter the classic haiku** (I’ve been classically trained in this sort of thing, you see) has bothered me for the last ten years. It's not that Canada itself is lacking; I’ve been constantly made jealous by the early outlay of Vancouver’s cherry-lined streets. (Did you know that they have more than 37,000 trees there, both on the streets and in over 50 parks? Twenty-three cultivars, whereas around here we see maybe four.***) And for years I’ve been yearning for a proper sakura photoshoot and the locale to do it in… not knowing it was in easy reach of TO all along.

So thanks to Jeremy & Tara for today’s enlightenment and guided tour, rurex style. (The reward shall be photos. Lots and lots of lovely photos.)

And I’m not mean. I share my location secrets with other photographers. (See also: Guild Inn, General Awesomeness Of.) Which is why I am suggesting that right now, if you’re a photographer or cosplayer or just general stroller in lovely natural settings, and it’s daylight and not raining, you drop whatever you happen to be doing and get yourself to the Rock Gardens area of the Royal Botanical Gardens of Burlington. Please note that the parking lot may be closed, in which case you’ll want to park down the road at the Laking Gardens lot, and walk a kilometer along Plains Road West to the area. On one side of the road you will find a sunken meadow which hosts an assortment of massive sixty year old cherry trees. It's a perfect spot to relax while cars whiz past, oblivious to the beauty nearby. On the other side of the road is the actual rock garden (another amazing construction, a deep planted valley laced with man-made streams) and a beautiful rolling lawn which holds the other half of the Garden's collection. I counted more than 12 varieties of cherry between both sides of the road... and then there's the extended collection of magnolia, forsythia, azaleas, and lilac. If the rolling gates are not standing open I suggest you gently nudge your body between them (or, if taking the underpass, use the handy railing to climb over and around them), then make your way tracelessly over the grounds, taking only photos, leaving only footprints etcetera. It will be worth it.

Notes

To see many more images from the Royal Botanical Gardens or spring cherry hunt, visit the Hanami 2010 or RBG sets.

*For a contrasting taste of what modern, urban hanami is like in Japan, check out TokyoCooney’s entertaining vlog on the matter: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VrbRojnoZw .

Per Cooney: “As much as people try to make it seem deep it really is just an excuse for people to go sit in the park and get blotto.”

**The classic sakura verse by Matsuo Basho (1644-1694):

Kore-wa! Kore-wa!                           Oh! Oh!
To bakari hana no                            Was all I could say
Yoshino-yama                                   On flower-clad Mount Yoshino

Or perhaps more elegantly:

Oh! Oh! Was all I could say
For the cherries that grow
On Mount Yoshino

***Somei-yoshino! Oshima zakura!
For a comprehensive list of the cherry cultivars North Americans might come across in their hunting, see: http://www.vcbf.ca/the-cherry-tree/cherry-cultivars

Kanzan zakura, Kariya Park, Mississauga (2009). More images from Kariya can be found here.

Cherries on the brain. Royal Botanical Gardens, Burlington (2010). Photo by Otaku-Minette.