Washington welcomes spring with cherry blossoms

Thousands of tourists from all over come to Washington each spring to enjoy the natural spectacle offered by more than 3,000 cherry blossom trees.

Despite the previous very cold days, the trees have awakened from their hibernation cycle this week, which the United States National Park Service (NPS) has predicted this year will be the peak of flowering, between Wednesday 22 and Saturday the 25th. NPS records indicate the earliest recorded bloom dates from March 15, 1990, and the latest, April 18, 1958.

This Saturday the curtain of the Cherry Blossom Festival 2023which celebrates the gift of these trees in 1912 from Tokyo to Washington DC, and ends on April 16.

NPS horticulturists, who “monitor shoot development” as spring approaches, warn that a sudden frost or windy rain can change or end the forecasts for this natural spectacle.

However, the city government, against all odds, prepares every year for the Festival, which offers with its variety of events and celebrations an opportunity for local businesses, and becomes an opportunity to learn about Japanese culture, according to the city ​​government.

“Spring is a beautiful and exciting time in DC, and we love to welcome visitors to our city (…) When people come for the Cherry Blossom Festival, we want them to stay and experience DC: our restaurants, our free museums, our theaters and sports, and our beautiful neighborhoods that are also full of cherry blossoms. There is so much to do and see,” Mayor Muriel Bowser said during a press conference to give details of the festival.

The unusual cold of the past weekend has not prevented some visitors from embarking on walks to see the first flower buds and some trees already in bloom, and to take the first photos.

The city government estimates that one and a half million visitors arrive in Washington each year during these days for this festival, an expected injection of resources for hotels, transportation and small businesses, which attract millions of dollars from visitors.

a japanese gift

The vast majority of the roughly 3,800 cherry trees planted on the National Mall in Washington are the Japanese Yoshino and Kwanzan cherry varieties, which produce pink and white blossoms. The latter are the first to reach the maximum flowering point.

Japan offered the trees of its national flower to the United States as a token of friendship between the two peoples with a project started in 1909. It was planned to plant some 6,000 trees equally in Washington and New York, but the plan failed. fully comply.

The arrival of the cherry trees in the US capital was made possible by the involvement of the first lady of the United States at the time, Helen Taft (1909 – 1913), who dedicated herself to the project of decorating the surroundings of the Tidal Basin, the artificial pond with waters of the Potomac River built between the iconic monuments to the founding fathers George Washington and Thomas Jefferson.

Until the administration of President William Howard Taft, the wives of the presidents had very discreet participations, with which Mrs. Talf changed the perspective of the work from her office of first lady in the White House since her arrival.

Documents from the time indicate that the first 2,000 trees arrived infected with pests and had to be burned by order of President Talf. It was not until 1912 that the first trees could be successfully planted, of which only a hundred survive.

Historical records say that the first effort to bring the cherry trees to Washington was led by another woman, named Eliza Ruhamah Scidmore, in 1880, a journalist and researcher, and the first woman to serve on the board of the National Geographic Society.

Scidmore learned about the tradition of cherry blossoms in Japan thanks to a visit to his brother who served in the United States diplomatic corps in Japan. Since then he sent letters and moved contacts to materialize that desire that he found an echo years later in the first lady Talf.

Today that legacy is the hook for the tourist industry in the city, which offers three-day tour packages to the capital that include the cherry blossoms and other attractions so that the visitor can take away the stamps of the American capital that welcomes spring with cherry blossoms

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