Spring has arrived, and the cherry trees at the Dallas Arboretum are blooming right on schedule.
This year's March weather, though, caused a little anxiety in the world of flora.
Temperatures in North Texas this month have ping-ponged from t-shirt friendly to hard freeze and back, so there was definitely a little nail-biting going on at the Dallas Arboretum. Especially one day in early March, when temps plummeted to 22 degrees.
"Things that were blooming then survived, we'll go forward knowing they'll be OK," said Dave Forehand, vice president of gardens at the arboretum. "So it kind of gave us a nice test and we passed the test, luckily, so we're good going forward,"
He says the cherry trees sailed through that early March freeze. But folks eager to surround themselves with their delicate flowers don't have a big window.
"They bloom for about 10 days. [These are] the same trees you'll find in Washington D.C. — the beautiful, white, cloud-form Yoshino Cherries," Forehand said. "There's about 150 of these trees here at the arborteum."
Not just dazzling the Tidal Basin and the National Mall, the cherry blossoms are celebrated throughout the entire city during this annual festival https://t.co/RzeO951TXN (IG/miliman12) #MyDCcool #SpringBlossomsHere pic.twitter.com/wq0cOVB41Q— washingtondc (@washingtondc) March 15, 2019
Even a moderate wind will blow petals off the blooms — and it's supposedly good luck if they land on you.
Forehand says it's pretty special that this tree, which only flowers for a very short time, just so happens to herald the change of seasons in North Texas.
"This is almost always when the cherry blossoms are beginning to open and look good, so they do usher in spring each year for us in Dallas," he said.
So even though you may have just stowed your winter parkas, if you want to catch this fleeting flash of spring, you better hurry:
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