Fall might be in the air and trees are no longer budding, but one tree in Vancouver is blooming in a special way.

Over the past month, tags filled with people's wishes have started appearing on the branches of this tree in a West End parkette on Jervis Street, between Burnaby and Harwood streets.

(Peter Scobie/CBC)

Messages of peace and love

(Peter Scobie/CBC)

While others got creative...

(Peter Scobie/CBC)

(Peter Scobie/CBC)

A Vancouver mystery

But who started the tradition of hanging wishes on this tree and what makes it so special?

It's a bit of a Vancouver mystery.

(Peter Scobie/CBC)

The Vancouver Park Board says it wasn't their initiative. And the West End Business Improvement Association and local community centres and services yielded no answers.

CBC even door knocked on houses near the wish tree, but to no avail.

In fact, no one seems to know when this started, but the city gardener who maintains the parkette says he noticed the tags showing up a month ago.

If you know how this wish tree came to be, drop us a line at cbcnewsvancouver@cbc.ca.

It won't last forever

The tree is actually a large shrub known as blueblossom.

If you want to visit the tree or add your own wish, go soon — the park board says it will eventually take down the wishes.

"[The wishes] are not hurting the shrub, but the gardener plans to remove them when the rains start and the tags get soggy," the park board said in an email.

(Peter Scobie/CBC)

Wish trees around the world

All following photos via Reuters.

During the Wei Sang festival, Tibetans burn tree branches to create smoke and throw praying papers to wish for good fortunes and a better pasture season.

The festival is usually held in May or June.

Tibetans throw praying papers on horseback as they gather for a traditional praying festival called "Wei Sang." (Reuters)

A man stands among flying praying papers during "Wei Sang." (Reuters)

China

Wish tablets from devotees praying for wealth and good fortune hang from a tree during the Chinese Lunar New Year at Dongyue Temple in Beijing in 2014.

Wish tablets hang from a tree at Dongyue Temple in Beijing. (Jason Lee/Reuters)

The wish tablets are traditionally used to pray for wealth and good fortune.

The tablets were hung for the temple fair for the Chinese New Year celebrations in Beijing. (Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters)

In India

During the the Hindu religious festival of Vata Savitri Purnima, married Hindu women tie sacred threads and coconuts around a banyan tree.

Married Hindu women tie coconuts and other sweets to sacred threads around a banyan tree, believed to be a divine wishing tree. (REUTERS)

In this photo from June 2015, the married women taking part in the ceremony in Ahmedabad fasted for the whole day to pray for the betterment of their husbands, family and society.

It's a ceremony to pray for good luck during the Hindu religious festival of Vata Savitri Purnima. (Amit Dave/Reuters)

Japan

Employees of a jewellery store attached foiled paper strips onto bamboo branches to celebrate the "Tanabata" or "Star festival" in Tokyo in July 2006.

A popular tradition of the festival is to write one's wishes on a piece of paper and hang it on a bamboo tree in the hope they come true.

A popular tradition of the festival is to write one's wishes on a piece of paper and hang it on a bamboo tree in the hope they come true. (Issei Kato/Reuters)

Yoko Ono's art

Artist Yoko Ono has planted wish trees, inviting members of the public to place their own wishes on the tree.

In this 2007 photo, she ties her handwritten wish for peace onto the branch of a Japanese-flowering Dogwood tree at the "Wish Tree for Washington D.C."

A handwritten wish for peace by artist Yoko Ono. (Jason Reed/Reuters)

Ono dedicated the tree to the spirit and goodwill of the initial 1912 gift of cherry blossom trees to the U.S. from Japan.

Artist Yoko Ono ties her handwritten wish for peace in Washington D.C." (Jason Reed/Reuters)

Her work was also shown in Montreal. Here, Claudio Ramirez of Montreal lifts six-month-old Saskia to look at the wish tree as they tour an art exhibition at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts titled Imagine: The Peace Ballad of John & Yoko.

The 2009 exhibition marked the 40th anniversary of John Lennon and Yoko Ono's "bed-in" for peace, a week-long protest against the Vietnam War.