Peak bloom has arrived for the thousands of Japanese cherry blossom trees at the National Mall in Washington, and the area is awash in magnificent pink and white.

Predicting the timing of peak bloom — defined as when 70% of the blossoms have opened — has been getting harder. In the 1920s, the average peak bloom was April 5. That moved up to March 31 in recent years, and the 2023 peak arrived yet a week earlier, according to the National Park Service on Thursday.

“I’m feeling like this is going to be the trend due to climate change,” said Matthew Morrison, the park service’s urban forester charged with overseeing the trees’ care.

The annual National Cherry Blossom Festival, which runs through April 16, celebrates Japan’s 1912 gift of 3,020 cherry trees to the city of Washington.

Two of those trees were planted by First Lady Helen Herron Taft and Viscountess Chinda, wife of the Japanese Ambassador to the United States, with just a few onlookers present. That small gathering became the origin of the festival, which officially launched 23 years later, in 1934.

The average lifespan of a Japanese cherry tree falls roughly between 30 and 40 years, depending on variety, yet the two trees planted by Taft and Chinda and a handful of other trees are still standing 111 years later.

“That defies science,” said Morrison, who attributes the anomaly to “a little bit of magic tied to this wonderful gift,” and the attentive, year-round care his team provides.

Many of the 3,700 trees blooming at the 146-acre park today are offspring of the originals, cultivated from clippings, Morrison said.

Others are regularly donated by the Casey Trees philanthropic group of Washington.

Morrison oversees a team of just three arborists charged with caring for the cherry trees, and keeps a “personal health record” for each.

The arborists, armed with climbing gear, ladders and chippers, visit each tree to provide pruning and other care. They record their findings in a database.

AP