Cherry Blossoms - The Easy Way

As you probably have heard, the cherry blossoms around the Tidal Basin are out early this year and are nearing their peak. You couldn't ask for better weather to see them; but on the other hand, you may not want to fight your way through the crowds of tourists. If that's the case, you can enjoy the photos posted on the Cherry Blossoms Flickr Group. This Flickr group has over 32,000 photos of cherry blossoms from all over the world.

If you just want to see photos just of our local cherry trees --and you should on their 100th anniversary-- the Washington Post is running a slide show. You can also contribute your photos to the show -- but we strongly recommend waiting until the weekend is over and choosing a time when the light is good but the crowds are light.

For those who consider a first-person viewing essential to springtime in Washington, there's a great new resource, the Casey Trees Foundation's interactive map, which highlights cherry blossom locations in all eight wards of the District. Here are some tips on how to use this new map from Casey Trees:

The new map offers alternative sites to witness the peak bloom and avoid crowds at the Tidal Basin and the National Mall, and encourages residents to discover trees in their own neighborhoods and communities.

White dots are the familiar Yoshino cherry trees, turquoise dots represent snow goose cherry trees, pink dots mark the location of the pink, double-blossomed Kwanzan cherry trees, which bloom about two weeks after the Yoshino, and red dots signify all other cherry trees, which include black cherry, edible cherry, Okame cherry and weeping cherry trees. Map users can also learn when each cherry tree was planted, its size, longitudinal and latitude coordinates and get a street view of the planting site.