And the seeds tasted kind of like almonds but bitter. I did crack open about 500-600 of them

It's a very old tree also possibly been planted 40 years ago or more .

It's most likely Prunus mume, aka Chinese plum or Jpanese apricot. Very early bloomer with a range of flower colors but a deep pink is very common. This is grown primarily for ornamental purposes in this country although it does produce edible fruit. It is not the same plant as what we know as an apricot.

Generally not considered hardy in that cold a zone but as you say it is well protected/sheltered, that could explain it.

Prunus mume is not edible like these fruits are and the flowers on the mume look a lot different.

And it wouldn't survive here @ minus 45C - 49F

either should any apricots but they do! I even had a peach tree survive in my yard but it suffered winter damage so I dug it up after only a bit of it leafed out at the bottom. We don't get minus 40 and colder like you guys up in edmonton and Winnipeg do and cold spells don't stay long when we get them.calgary can get cold but I haven't ever seen minus 40 without windchills and I have lived here for 30 years. these trees are nestled along bow river which doesn't freeze completely over like the rivers up north do .,and well sheltered in downtown I bet that location it's in is zone5 like in the winter .There was blossoms on this tree last year just not not many ,as it had a heavy crop the year before.

Do a bit more research on Prunus mume. Its fruits ARE edible and flower form and color is variable. There are many photos online that match what yours shows.

What I mean..we got these trees or similar ones here and can withstand minus 45C,
lots show pink when just opening but fade away in a couple of day's.

The flowers look the same as on my Chinese apricot. Mine were pink too. My tree is in its second year so I do not know how the fruits look and taste. You may have a seedling of Chinese apricot because the real Chinese is supposed to have a sweet pit.

These have a sweet pit. They are not prunus mume 100% I picked 100lbs of the apricots and they were apricots. The mume has poor quality fruit for eating fresh these were good and sweet if ripened on the tree.

Konrad I have some of this grafted from last year on a plum and i too thought maybe they fade to white in color. But they are still after 4-5 days light pink and didn't fade and are alive on my tree and I hand pollinated them with westcot pollen so we will see. I will protect this branch with my life throughout the summer lol. I have a photo I will post later.

These flowers look exactly like my other apricot flowers except the color is different same amount of pedals . The p mume has a way different looking flower and the fruit is not reported good for eating but there maybe a strain that is good for fresh eating I'm not sure? But honestly where would somebody in calgary 50 years ago get a edible prunus mume seed . If there is edible ones I bet they are newly cultivated because what I find online is they are not meant for eating .

mattpf, I'm Chinese, and I'd tell you that any variety of P. mume is edible, if it can bear fruits. I used to eat the fruits of ornamental P. mume planted by the roadside when I was a kid, and they didn't taste bad when fully ripe.

You can tell P. mume from other apricots by these differences: P. mume blossoms are very fragrant, while other apricot blossoms don't smell pleasant, at least to me; the first year branchlets of P. mume are green, while those of other apricots are usually brown. However, it's not a hardy species. Its outdoor growing range in China is south of the Yellow River, aka zone 8-10, but some hybrids of mume and other apricots can survive in the north, and these hybrids have intermediate characters.

I hope what I said would help you.

In addition, other apricot blossoms can be pink, which is not that rare.

Most likely it's a Manchurian strain,..can be pink also, according to some expert I talked to @ the scion exchange.

Can you post a picture of that tree in full bloom please.

I was at the exchange too and heard that from the same expert at the same time. Only I thought it was said the Manchurian strains were usually pink and more often so than regular non hardy apricots. I also know where the tree is and took the image on Saturday. All were in mid-bloom period and the east tree had most of the branches still having pink. The image is the most white of the east same tree. Strange [it be] but one south branch had by far the most white.

OK..good, as I suspected, fading out dark pink pretty good when fully open.

Goldcot apricots bloom pink. It was introduced in 1967 as an apricot that could take the cold so maybe someone gave it a try where you live. I have one and your fruits look like what I get.

Did you notice that only one of the five trees had pink flowers like this. I have a few better photos of the tree. They do fade a bit white but that's when the pedals are about dry . That south branch gets no cover and is in the open parking lot and see a lot of sun? Or perhaps it's grafted on that tree but I did get a lot of fruit off that branch too and it was all coming the same time I doubt it's grafted. I got some pics on Sunday of it.

Here is a full shot

Actually I was there on Sunday not Saturday. I might have seen you go away with your girlfriend (?) when I first got there. It was the only pink one with most of the branches having pink in full bloom of the bunch of trees. It's doing better and going to live longer of them all. Maybe even the reason why dormant buds look different because of tree health and bud survival in higher numbers. It's in it's glory alright, so I bet it's the best 'goldcot' tree in the world.

nobody ruled out the possibility of prunus Siberica or Siberian apricot x ?

I did research them a lot and college in olds alberta has used one for breeding I'm also sure brooks horticulture station did too. alcan I was with my wife and two kids i had a Calgary Flames jersey on .

Did your moms father plant these trees? Or did he just descover them. I doubt back than we got much imported from usa.

I still think it was you but don't remember that much if kids were there. Wife black straight hair?

Last Saturday at the Devonian gardens we talked about prunus Siberica and thought it to be a rather minor deviation of prunus Manchirica. Even though Siberica is likely to carry over the pink I still have one reserved thought that Robert Purvis knows of about Siberica. That it is an incredibly slow grower and is dwarf. Robert used to live in Alaska and in Idaho still does nothing but apricot in one of his collections in Washington.

Gabe Botar was at the gardens who is another person knowing a great deal about apricot. He had scions of a prolific dwarf apricot with small good tasting fruits that he produced from crossed parents. Good stuff because slow growing and dwarf is always great for extreme cold or unprotected sites. For example flowering under the snow would delay bloom and escape the damaging spring frosts. If Clair Lammers (formerly from Edmonton) from Alaska ever grew Gabes apricot he would at least had fruits from this where all other his Manchurica experiments failed.

My grandfather may have been around as a retired forester at the time those were planted and lived very close by. Only a remote possibility exists. I came across the trees a few years ago because I wanted to visit my childhood memories of the wading pool that still there in that place and not that anybody told me.

Who ever planted them it seems very possible it was done from self pollinated Goldcot seeds similar the way you collected from the pink tree the seeds for another generation.

that tree will have tons of fruit again this year looks like all of them will .

Ive spoke to a lady who has few big apricot trees just east of calgary and she says her trees produce fruit almost every year . I think calgary is just about ok for some of these hardy types as long as the location is ok .

Matt..that means you've got to show us LOTS of apricots this year!
The same with the Capilano's here in Edmonton,..if mother nature does cooperate like it
did 2 years ago then we should be good! Now it's Calgary versus Edmonton! Who will be the winner?

I've followed weather in calgary and Edmonton and you guys don't dip below zero much any more. Must be nice to live in the tundra lol .you guys get a bit more day light now too. Doesn't get dark a bit further north this time of year lol that extra bit of daylight and being further north benefits you guys big time this time of year. Now I know why konrad lives around there :)

I should be further north lol..last night we had some frost and tonight will be close again too, my friend said that most hes plums got wiped out in Edmonton. The good thing is, the domestica hasn't opened yet, best plums to have!

but winters really suck further you go :)

On further investigation konrad the casino apricots small fruit set are still mostly green that is a very hardy apricot!

And I have two westcots in my north side of house still green fruit set too. I never cut that tree the rabbit chewed 90% of the bark and it's just as hardy as the casino and my other 3 westcots are as hardy.

The fruit on the two westcots that were loaded in my south had fruits size of grapes all the fruit is almost rotten looking shrivelled up . The fruit has almost no tolerance to minus temps once the flowers (shucks) have fallen off. But if they are still flowering they are more hardy .same with my plums.

Ohh well yet another year of disappointment next year I will leave them mulched in longer.

Anybody check the capilano trees ?

Mine is just leafing out a little.