Ohrn Image: First Cherry Blossoms

Probably a plum tree — same family “prunus” but not the cherry, and here’s my sorry but slightly hilarious atale:
It was only last year that my wife declared that we were going out to get cherry blossoms to make sakura liqueur and sakura salt. “What does that mean?” I asked. “It means we drive down the street and when we find one in bloom, you jump out and rip a whole bag full of blossoms off the branches and jump back into the getaway car and we escape. Then I put them in vodka for a few months and we drink it. Simple.” she said. “Why me?” I asked. “Because you’re a foot taller and I can drive faster” she said.
So after half an hour of driving we found a street in Marpole with cherry trees just coming into bloom. She stopped, I ran, I stripped off every blossom I could grab and jumped back into the car. “Not enough” she said. “Find a new neighbourhood” I said. “I think people saw me stripping their street trees and weren’t amused” I said. “Fine” she said. Ten trees later we escaped home with just enough blossoms. Then she goes online to look for the right recipe and discovers that we don’t have cherry blossoms, we have plumb blossoms, and cherries come later. “Bad news” she yells. “We have to do it again.”
Visions of being hunted by bylaw officers danced in my head, but three weeks later she insisted we go again. This time we found a park with a beautiful cherry tree in full bloom. Problem was, there was a young Asian couple taking selfies under the tree. How could we strip the branches with them there? Solution: offer to take pictures of them. They leave and in seconds we have bags of blossoms. Two months later, sakura liqueur. Fascinating, intense taste.

And don’t forget the fruit from the Japanese plum trees is delicious, too.
If you are lucky to find a tree bearing fruit.