Washington Cherry Blossoms

Washington’s iconic cherry blossoms reached “peak bloom” this week, drawing crowds of tourists and locals to the National Cherry Blossom Festival on the Tidal Basin. The Washington Monument is shrouded in scaffolding for this year's festival, as workers repair a crack that appeared after a 5.8-magnitude earthquake rattled Washington in 2011.

The National Cherry Blossom Festival commemorates the 1912 gift of 3,000 cherry trees from Mayor Yukio Ozaki of Tokyo to Washington.

Many people come to the Tidal Basin armed with their smartphones, snapping pictures of the blossoms.

The first two trees from Japan were planted by US first lady Helen Herron Taft and Viscountess Chinda, wife of the Japanese ambassador in 1912. In 1966, the wife of US President Lyndon Johnson, Lady Bird Johnson held a reenactment of the first planting.

1.5 million people from around the world visit Washington for the two week long National Cherry Blossom Festival.

The National Park Service tries to predict when the blossoms will reach “peak bloom” each year – when 70 percent of the blossoms are on the trees -- but this year it had to revise its forecast three times as wintry weather continued in Washington into early April.

Sisters Maejoy and Donna Pangilanan, who moved to the United States from the Philippines a year ago, sit by the blossom strewn Tidal Basin to enjoy peak bloom, which is expected to last at least a week.

Many visitors to the Cherry Blossom Festival rent paddle boats and paddle on the waters of the Tidal Basin, past the Jefferson Memorial, honoring America’s third president, Thomas Jefferson.

Business people in Washington try to capitalize on the Cherry Blossom Festival: a cherry blossom T-shirt sells for $3 more than a normal Washington souvenir shirt