Cherry Blossom Festival visitors will be steered away from hundreds of new trees

The plenty of visitors heading to the D.C. Tidal Basin to see this 12 months’s cherry blossoms may also spot younger saplings alongside a newly accomplished sea wall.

The National Park Service is planting 400 new Yoshino cherry trees across the Tidal Basin and the National Mall.

Of these, 250 trees had been presents from Japan, celebrating the United States’ 250th birthday. The nation gifted the unique cherry blossom trees in 1912.

“This is the symbol of the friendship between the two countries, as well as well as a gift for the next generation. So, we are looking forward to these cherry blossom trees in bloom for many years to come,” Masatsugu Odaira, the Japanese Embassy’s minister for public affairs, advised WTOP.

Most of the trees will be planted because the climate warms, National Mall Superintendent Kevin Griess advised WTOP.

“We don’t want to plant them and then have a cold stretch come in,” Griess mentioned.

But the general public will have little entry to those newer trees and the seawall mission, which Griess beforehand mentioned will have a grand reopening after the Cherry Blossom Festival.

“I just ask everyone to respect our areas that we block off so that the trees that we are planting get a chance to grow and thrive. Don’t hang on them. Don’t take one home,” Griess mentioned ultimately week’s information convention predicting peak bloom.

The Tidal Basin seawall reconstruction mission wrapped in December, strengthening the Potomac River shoreline from the Jefferson Memorial to the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial. The space flooded usually throughout excessive tide, and 140 trees were cut down for the mission.

WTOP/Luke Lukert

WTOP/Luke Lukert

WTOP/Luke Lukert

The bigger Potomac River seawall mission is anticipated to wrap within the coming months.

Griess mentioned it’s underneath finances and forward of schedule.

“When I say it’s ahead of schedule, it’s eight months ahead of schedule and then it’s $30 million under budget and that’s taxpayer money,” Griess mentioned.

Griess mentioned this 12 months’s Cherry Blossom Festival is especially essential with the highlight on the nation’s capital throughout the semiquincentennial.

“This is an anchor event in D.C. It starts off the entire season,” Griess mentioned. “We have major America 250 celebratory events that will connect the nation and we’re doing our best to make it look great.”

Last 12 months, round 1.6 million folks visited the Tidal Basin for cherry blossom season. The National Park Service expects to smash that file this 12 months.

Get breaking information and every day headlines delivered to your e-mail inbox by signing up here.

© 2026 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This web site is just not supposed for customers positioned throughout the European Economic Area.