Sakura Watch February 28, 2024 - This past weekend, I took advantage of warmer weather to venture out to High Park for a first look at the cherry blossom trees’ progress for 2024! I was especially curious to see how this very mild winter has impacted the park and Sakura cherry trees in particular since I’ve already seen plenty of signs of early budding across various trees and bushes in my neighbourhood over the past few weeks. Although I’ve seen warmer winters before, this may be the mildest one yet since I’ve started this website and tracking the blossoms. How much of a factor has this weather impacted the trees? Read on to find out…

Watch the Youtube video update below.

Buds Appear Healthy and Ahead of Schedule

Blossom buds have been developing well so far, even if they are showing signs of being slightly ahead of schedule. Undoubtedly, the warmer weather we’ve experienced over this mild winter has directly contributed to accelerating the normal pace of how the buds would usually develop at this time of year. Most of what I saw around the sports fields and along Cherry Hill showed well-shaped, oval-shaped buds with a healthy, deep, rich bronze colour. The tips display a more nuanced copper colour, which helps place them right between Stages 1 and 2 of the bud development.

Although it has not been highly unusual to see the buds progress at this stage in recent years, on average, I expect to find this when visiting around the second week of March. This indicates that the warming trends of this winter have pushed up the development by a couple of weeks compared to a more typical colder winter. If this warming trend continues throughout March, it will point to a possible early bloom, but as they say, time will tell as it’s still a bit too early to be sure. There is also the danger of having the buds develop too quickly that a sudden burst of cold weather, say from a Polar Vortex as happened in 2016, the trees become vulnerable, and the buds will produce only a fraction of the flowers they usually do. Hopefully, that is not the case for us in 2024!

Here are some photos of these other buds as seen this past Sunday:

New Changes and more Content to come!

WEBSITE UPDATES - You may have noticed that some things look slightly different throughout this website. I’ve been attempting to revamp this site to take advantage of some of the newer Squarespace features available, so please bear with me over the next few weeks. I hope the overall experience of visiting this site will be easier and better no matter what type of device you are viewing it on. Feel free to let me know your thoughts in the comments below!

PODCAST LAUNCH - I’ve wanted to start this for the last few years but have either been making excuses or not allowing the proper time to put this together. I aim to make the podcasts at least a long-form summary of my park visits and anything else related to High Park and the cherry blossoms that I think would be great to share with all of you. This would be a weekly project, so look for an announcement soon…

TIKTOK & THREADS Added - Something I should have done sooner, but better late than never, right? I’m sure this will help reach even more people about how best to view the park and respect all that it offers. As for any cherry blossom dance routines, I’m not making any promises.

So let me finish this off for now with a huge THANK YOU to all of you for following along for another year, and watch for more updates soon.

Do Your Part to Help the Trees from Damage

As much fun as it is to get up close to enjoy the cherry blossoms truly, there are some who take it a bit too far and cause damage to the tree that can lead to irreparable harm so the trees can not protect themselves from insects and disease and eventually die. This leaves us with less mature trees to enjoy, so please, if you really want to enjoy the blossoms for many years to come, you need to do your part to help protect the trees and prevent any harm to them:

• Don’t pick or break off any blossoms

• Don’t pull down, shake or break off the branches

• Don’t climb, sit or stand on the trunks or branches - the mature trees are very old and not strong enough to support the weight and stress of people, even small children!

• Don’t leave any litter IN or around the trees - it’s so sad to see people putting their garbage in the hollow trunks of the older trees, which invites animals and other insects to nest inside and cause internal damage.

• DO take photos without harming the trees

• DO enjoy the blossoms and respect their immediate surroundings

• DO remember that respecting the trees from root to branch will help everyone to enjoy the blooming trees for many years to come

Donate to Support The Cherry Blossoms

The City of Toronto now accepts donations to help maintain existing trees and plant future ones. See this link for details.
Read more details and information on the City of Toronto - Cherry Blossom Website

Thank you all for visiting the site. Be careful, be safe, and watch for more updates soon.