Trees set to bloom for city’s own cherry blossom season
The scene is familiar: billowing clouds of pink and white cherry blossoms hovering above gently rippling waters, with stately neoclassical columns gleaming in the background.
But the photo wasn’t taken in Washington, D.C., home of the nation’s bestknown cherry blossom festival. It was taken last year in Chicago, where about 160 young flowering cherry trees hug the shores of the Columbian Basin, behind the Museum of Science and Industry. Planted starting in 2013, in honor of the 120th anniversary of the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair when ties of friendship were forged with Japan, the trees are finally mature enough to put on a first-rate show, according to Chicago Park District Operations Support Manager Karen Szyjka.
“Last year was nice, but now is the time when you can start really telling people to come out and appreciate it,” said Szyjka.
The 160 trees in Jackson Park are the largest collection in the Chicago area, she said, and were planted specifically for hanami, or the traditional Japanese practice of cherry-blossom viewing.
“It’s really spectacular,” she said of the site, which is not yet in bloom this year. “You’re not just appreciating all the blossoms. There is an incredible fragrance too.”
This year, for the first time, cherry blossom fans can track the status of the blooms — expected to be at their peak during the first or second week of May — via updates at the Park District website, with additional information at the site’s Japanese Garden web page. The trees are already showing buds, according to Park District project manager Devin Rigolino, and staff members are making daily checks. Exact bloom time is notoriously difficult to predict, so Rigolino recommends checking the website or Park District social media frequently.
“As soon as they are blooming, we will have it up on our website,” Rigolino said.
America’s romance with the cherry blossom was imported from Japan, where the tradition of hanami, or flower viewing, goes back hundreds of years.
In Japan, cherry trees bloom at the end of March or in early April, Wataru Inoue, media coordinator at the consulate general of Japan in Chicago, said via email: “Since the Japanese fiscal year for all schools and companies starts in April, cherry blossoms are a symbol of new beginnings in Japan. During blooming season, hanami is a part of Japanese tradition where companies, families and friends gather under the cherry blossoms to eat and drink together while admiring the beauty of the cherry blossoms.”
In 1912, Japan gave 3,000 cherry trees to Washington, D.C., to be planted along the Potomac River, Inoue wrote. Those trees would be joined by others, and today Washington’s cherry blossom festival is a tourist attraction and a widely recognized rite of spring.
Beginning in 2013, the nonprofit Project 120 and the Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Chicago planted the 160 trees in Jackson Park to commemorate the 120th anniversary of the 1893 World’s Fair and the 50th anniversary of JCCC in 2016, according to Inoue and the Park District.
Other spots for cherry blossom viewing in the Chicago area include the Morton Arboretum, which has about 20 flowering cherry trees along the main drive, about eight in the Korea Collection, and another 50 or so nearby, many of them relatively young. Curator of Living Collections Matt Lobdell estimated that the trees will be in full flower in the next 10 days or so, but cautioned that estimate could change with the weather. He recommended that visitors stop by the main desk to check on the flowers and the best areas for viewing.
The Chicago Botanic Garden isn’t expecting much from its flowering cherry trees this year due to the cold weather, according to Director of Living Plant Documentation Boyce Tankersley. But hundreds of crab apple trees, which look a lot like cherry trees when they bloom, could be in flower as early as the first week of May.
At Jackson Park, the flowering cherry trees line the Columbian Basin and lead toward the Wooded Island, home to the Japanese Garden, also known as the Garden of the Phoenix. There, several cherry trees frame Sky Landing, a lotusshaped stainless steel sculpture by Yoko Ono on the outskirts of the garden. Chicagoans can sample the quiet pleasures of the garden, or stay at the Columbian Basin, where the blossoms are thickest.