Cherries around the US National Arboretum

It was grey today and finally rained sometime after lunch. That was a good thing for the cherries and the magnolias both of which have been stressed a bit by the high temperatures this week.As an adjunct to this oddly warm winter you can see that many of the cherries are leafing out as they flower. Usually the new leaves come on only as the flowers fade.

Every year I marvel at the diversity of our cherry holdings.They come in an abundance of  shades of pink and one shade of white. A few are dark enough almost to approach red but usually that's an illusion and on closer approach turn out to be dark pink. The trees come in all shapes and sizes: tall, short, vase-shaped, broadly open, columnar, rounded.... It's worth a trip this weekend if you're close. I'd suggest getting out and walking but I did take these pictures out of the truck window, so if you're pressed for time....