Hey everyone! Remember this?
The @CherryBlossFest & @NatlParkService just announced peak bloom will happen 3/31-4/3! #CherryBlossomDC #dcstaycation ??
— theHillisHome (@theHillisHome) March 2, 2016
Saucer Magnolia on 8th Street NE, yesterday 3/8/16. Photo by María Helena Carey
In case you haven’t ventured out of your cubicle, your minivan, or your post-apocalyptic shelter (hey, it happens), you should know we’re riding a heck of a heatwave. Look at that: it’s such a serious heat wave, it has me using the dadlicious “heck.” It’s just the latest warm-weather doom to confirm that the 2015-2016 winter has been officially the warmest on record, as reported by WTOP.
Since last week’s announcement at the press event for the Cherry Blossom Festival, the National Park Service has revised its peak blossom forecast–especially in light of us all sitting in our sandals and shorts as we read this–the new peak dates are March 18-24, a full three weeks earlier than forecast. The Washington Post’s Capital Weather Gang has their own prediction, focusing on March 24 as the key date to watch. You can read more about their prediction and methods here.
You can also check out Cherry Blossom Watch and find the indicator tree, which is the earliest blooming tree in all of the Tidal Basin. And you can also catch up on years’ worth of data and peak blooms at the official Bloom Watch page from the National Park Service.
Here at The Hill is Home we are happy that the Cherry Blossom Festival brings tourist traffic to the city, as well as appreciation for the friendship between our country and Japan. We are beyond elated that there are three main events happening in or near our neck of the woods: the Southwest Waterfront Fireworks Festival, Sunday April 10, starting at 1 p.m.; the Sakura Matsuri Street Festival, Saturday April 16, this year taking over the Navy Yard neighborhood (!!!!!), and the Anacostia River Festival, Sunday April 17, at Anacostia River Park! We hope to remind you about these events as they draw closer, and that you will enjoy yourself, blossoms or no blossoms.
However, we also want to remind you that some of the best blossom watching is right in our own backyard, starting now! For instance, you can already enjoy the beauty of the saucer magnolias (Magnolia x soulangeana) lining Lincoln Park, and planted in several streets all over the city. We like the Casey Trees tool on street tree identification, which can be helpful if you are a fan of a certain tree but don’t know what it is. You can find Casey Trees’ tools by clicking this link. This interactive guide to the trees around the Tidal Basin from the Washington Post is a couple of years old but it’s still a great cicerone to the place and the history.
Congressional Cemetery, 3/9/16. Photo by Jim Havard.
Then there are the cherry trees that you can enjoy in the relative calm of Stanton Park, Lincoln Park and Congressional Cemetery, as well as the Asian tree collections at the United States National Arboretum. Any of these local and local-ish places can give you all the sakura you can shake (or your kids can shake) a stick at, without the crowds or the agoraphobia. Today’s Stanton Park blossoms looked pretty well closed, as you can see from the photos below. However, the Congressional Cemetery species, which looks to be an earlier-blooming variety (perhaps Prunus sargentii?), is close to peak judging by this photo from Hill photog Jim Havard.
