A beautiful idea is blooming in the city

And now for something completely different: The Baltimore Flowering Tree Trail, an idea — more than that, a workable proposal — that should inspire all but the snarkiest trolls, and even trolls when they come up from the basement in spring.

Imagine miles of magnolias, ornamental cherry and Eastern redbud linking Baltimore’s parks, gracing the city’s boulevards along their medians and sidewalks, filling vacant lots with life and color, perfuming the air, making cynical men weep and those with allergies sneeze. Imagine strolling, running or wheeling your way under a canopy of flowering trees along smartly landscaped pathways. Imagine the line of cherry trees in Druid Hill Park multiplied thousands of times and smiling across Baltimore, and you get the general idea.

Imagine the possibilities in green urban tourism. Washington has the National Cherry Blossom Festival. New York City has the High Line. Atlanta has the BeltLine. Baltimore will have not only the Waterfront Promenade but, one of these days, the Flowering Tree Trail.

The project will roll out Wednesday evening — not even the mayor knows about it yet — when Jill Jonnes, an arboreal activist and author of an excellent book on city trees, speaks at the Cylburn Arboretum. It was Jonnes who got this idea a few years ago while researching her book, “Urban Forest: A Natural History of Trees and People in the American Cityscape.” Since then, she and other tree enthusiasts have collaborated on the first imaginings of the flowering trail.

“I could see it getting done in bits and pieces over the next decade,” Jonnes says, comparing the development of the trail with that of the Waterfront Promenade. Work on that brick path along the Inner Harbor commenced in the 1970s, and it now stretches nearly seven miles.

Jonnes and collaborators — the Baltimore City Forestry Board; the city’s chief arborist, Eric Dihle; the Friends of Druid Hill Park, Bikemore, TreeBaltimore; and City Councilman Leon Pinkett — hope to launch their project with new plantings in Druid Hill Park this fall.

Zoe Clarkwest, a landscape architect who serves on the forestry board, says the first trail will follow a portion of the bike path in Druid Hill.

“By using a variety of flowering trees and trees with fall and winter interest, the path will be a destination year-round,” says Clarkwest. “The result will be a pastiche of color and texture, of shade and light, for those who take to the trail.”

After the Druid Hill plantings are completed, the group hopes other city parks will develop trails. Ultimately, all the in-park trails could be linked by a flowering tree trail along city streets.

Jonnes sees the trail winding through neighborhoods with vacant lots left from the demolition of dilapidated rowhouses. New trees in those areas could be transformative, she says, affecting in a positive way how people feel about their communities and about themselves.

Baltimore is a sprawling city with two-thirds of the population it had in the middle of the 20th century. Over time, wide gaps in life expectancy and health have developed among its citizens. While the nature of those disparities is largely socioeconomic, no health professional discounts environment and quality of life as factors. Some city blocks have more liquor stores and vacant houses than trees. A tree trail in such neighborhoods would soften the edges, filter the air, provide shade and generally relieve the stress that contributes to poor health.

The Flowering Tree Trail group has partnered with Bikemore, which has an ambitious project of its own: The Baltimore Greenway Trails Network. Here’s how it is described on the organization’s website: “We’re creating a 35-mile trail throughout Baltimore so that you can walk or bike to 50-plus neighborhoods and countless destinations, parks, businesses and more.”

So integrating the Flowering Tree Trail with the Greenway made perfect sense. Sarah Lord, a member of the forestry board, imagines lots of blossoms along, say, 33rd Street, connecting Lake Montebello to Wyman Park and Druid Hill. “Our idea,” she says, “is to add color to the Greenway Network trails, early spring through late summer, by planting blossoming trees as well as shade trees, which sport great fall color — ginkgos and maples, for instance.

“And where there are vacant lots, [trees] could be planted to help link neighborhoods’ trails into parks’ trails. It is our fondest wish to see the Flowering Tree Trail become a vibrant tourist attraction a decade on.”

The timing for Jonnes’ announcement is good, coming right after another dazzling display of blossoms throughout the city, and in the midst of some punishing and polarizing news.

“There’s so much anger and bad spirit driving politics,” she says. “What’s driving [the tree trail] is joy and beauty. It’s as simple as that. Everyone can delight in the beauty of these flowering trees.”

Even trolls.