Cherry blossom season in Toronto has the power to turn the most cynical local into a gushing tourist. For a week near the end of April, the budding fruit trees in High Park lure thousands of amateur photographers hoping to catch a glimpse of the ephemeral beauty. The only problem? It’s hard to see through the tree-lovers.
But the litigators in the room know that springtime also brings a lesser-known display of bright-pink crabapple blossoms to the grounds at Osgoode Hall. The 50-year-old crabapple trees clustered outside the southern entrance come into bloom around the same times as their High Park cousins. “The buds start to appear in April, and they’re usually in peak bloom by the first week of May,” says Anne Law, an on-staff horticulturalist at the Law Society of Upper Canada.
The blossoms transform the grounds into an ethereal dreamland. And unlike in High Park, the beauty isn’t marred by hordes of people trying to snap the perfect Instagram shot. But act fast — the blossoms last for about a week, so they’re easy to miss.
And when it’s over, it leaves quite a mess. “The flower petals fall at the same time, leaving a thick carpet of pink along the lawn and the sidewalk,” says Law. “But the effort it takes to clean up is worth it. The flowers are just so beautiful.”
This story is from our Spring 2016 issue.
Photography by Braden Alexander