While D.C. is famous for having beautiful Cherry Blossoms, one of the often under-acknowledged and incredibly beautiful flower blooms to hit D.C. every year around this time is the Plum Blossoms. These trees, which frequently bloom around late January to February are incredibly iconic and beautiful, but they are often mistaken for Cherry Blossoms as a result of their similar pink coloring.
Currently, D.C.’s numerous Plum Blossom trees are beginning to bloom after D.C.’s recording-breaking temperatures this past weekend peaked at around 80 degrees! The sudden spring-like weather, which came just a week after D.C. was covered with snow, was enough to trigger the Plum Blossom’s blooming period. This means, that for roughly the next 10 days or so, the various Plum Blossom trees around D.C. will sprout their iconic pink petals before the next cold snap hits the city.
Fortunately, the flowers of D.C.’s Japanese Plum Blossoms famously stick around longer than the typical Cherry Blossom flowers do, so while the Cherry Blossom bloom may come and go in only a week, the Plum Blossom bloom can last up to a full month! That being said, naturally, a lot of that depends on how harsh the weather is over the next month, but while the nice weather lasts, it’s worth checking them out!
To see one of D.C.’s Japanese Plum Blossoms blooming, you can see one now at the U.S. Botanical Garden! While some of D.C.’s standard Cherry Blossoms may experience a few sudden “winter blooms” during warmer stretches of the winter, the peak Cherry Blossom bloom for this year is expected to take place around the last week of March and last into the first week of April. However, with D.C. weather being as unpredictable as ever, it’s hard to say whether it will come sooner as a result of this record-breaking heat, or later as a result of sporadic cold snaps.