Wednesday, September 17, 2008

About Those DC Cherry Blossoms

While going through some of my old National Geographics, I came across an article in the April 1997 issue about how Washington, DC's cherry trees came to be.

They came about through the initial efforts of writer and photographer Eliza R. Scidmore. After returning from a trip to Japan in 1885, she decided the beautiful cherry trees she had seen there would look great on the newly dredged and reclaimed land along the Potomac River.

Sh encountered lots of adversity until William Taft was inaugurated president in 1909. His wife, Helen had also been to Japan and ordered 90 cherry saplings from a Pennsylvania nursery and had them planted along the Potomac.

When Tokyo heard this, it sent 3,000 more flowering cherries in 1912.

And the Rest Was History. --RoadDog

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