As the cherry blossom season slowly comes to and end
the flowering dogwood starts to bloom.
I find this timing to be very fitting.
A lot of people know the history of how Japan
sent cherry trees to Washington DC in 1912.
A total of 3,020 trees, to be exact.
If we're going to be even more specific
it was the city of Tokyo that sent the trees.
This was after learning that the First Lady Taft
was planning on planting cherry trees in Washington DC.
2,000 cherry trees were actually first sent in 1910
but they realized that the trees were infested
and they had to be burned.
So Japan sent another batch of cherry trees in 1912
which are the cherry trees that are currently growing in DC.
So we all know of this story and
how famous the cherry trees are in DC.
Did you know that the U.S. gave us back a tree?
(Am I the only one who didn't know???)
That's right.
They gave us the beautiful dogwood tree
as a token of thanks in 1915.
So the fact that the dogwood flowers start to bloom after
our cherry blossoms seems fitting some how.
And also coincidentally, dogwood means
"returning thanks" in flower language.
Or maybe it's not a coincidence? :D
