Cherry Blossom Watch Update: April 1, 2025
What a difference just a couple of days makes! Two days ago, the cherry blossoms were looking flush and resplendent in white. Now, not so much.
You can find more photos from this morning in the update on the website.
What a difference just a couple of days makes! Two days ago, the cherry blossoms were looking flush and resplendent in white. Now, not so much.
The cherry blossoms around the Tidal Basin are suddenly close to done now. While it’s still possible to find some nice trees and branches out, it looks nothing like it did just a couple of days ago.
In the right conditions (cool, calm, dry), the cherry blossoms can last a couple of weeks after peak bloom. In the wrong conditions (hot, rainy, windy), they can be gone in as little as four to five days after peak bloom.
The problem is that over the past four to five days, we’ve had hot weather, heavy rain and storms (last night), and wind (today). It has all combined to chase them away quickly. In short, the hot weather made the blossoms fragile very quickly. The rain and wind have finished the job.
That said, there are still some blossoms out. Queues are forming next to some branches and trees to take photos.
You can find some outlier trees all the way around the Tidal Basin, but the best cluster of them is on the western side (closest to the National Mall), between the MLK Memorial and the Japanese Lantern.
Worth noting:
The saucer magnolias are well and truly done. I have a separate update with photos of them taken this morning.
The Kwanzan cherry blossoms are just starting to bloom. I’ve posted a separate update on them.
Those vibrant purple trees that are suddenly blooming all around are red buds. There are quite a few around the National Mall, and they’re quite stunning.
The tulips are suddenly coming out, including at the Floral Library next to the Tidal Basin.
The Cherry Blossom 10-Miler is on Sunday morning. It will impact access to the Tidal Basin (but the Tidal Basin remains open to pedestrian traffic).
Reader Photos 2025
Reader photo submissions for 2025 are now open! If you’d like to submit photos, you can find the link in the update on the website (I’m not able to paste it here, unfortunately).
Programming Note re: Email Updates
The main cherry blossom bloom is now substantially over. And, let’s face it, that’s the bloom most of us are interested in.
I want to respect your inbox, so I think this will be the last email update I send this year. But I’ll continue posting updates on the website on the Kwanzan cherry blossoms and any other updates worth noting from the Tidal Basin.
Thank you for following along—I appreciate it! And I hope to see you again next year!
At the Tidal Basin this Morning
It suddenly looks very different this morning than it has for the past week or so.
What to Know
The National Park Service has set up the Welcome Area on West Basin Drive, so it’s closed off to traffic and now open for business. West Basin Drive will remain closed through April 11.
Ohio Drive is currently open as normal. Mostly. There’s a corner down near the John Ericsson Memorial that’s fenced off as a construction staging area. But a new road has been created that goes around and provides an alternate intersection between Independence Avenue and Ohio Drive.
The paddle boat parking lot (aka the Main Ave SW parking lot) is no closed through April 8. They’ve put in a temporary beer garden and a few food trucks.
Parking lots A, B, and C are fully open. In recent years there was construction equipment taking up some of them, but that has long since gone. Like most of the other public parking around the Tidal Basin, those lots are metered with ParkMobile.
The Paddle Boats are open. It’s walk-up only until mid-April (ie. no reservations).
There are no special traffic restrictions on Ohio Drive yet. Expect that to be in place for the coming weekend.
Friendly Reminders
It’s a National Park. The usual National Park rules and courtesies apply.
Please don’t climb on the trees, pick the flowers, or break off branches.
Please be careful on the walking paths. There’s no railing around most of the Tidal Basin, and some areas are quite uneven and muddy.
Please dispose of any trash thoughtfully. The trash collection often gets overwhelmed at this time of year. There are trash cans around the Tidal Basin, but it’s never nearly enough to deal with the huge influx of visitors that come during a full bloom weekend.
It is a no drone zone. And it’s strictly enforced for all sorts of good reasons.
If you get a chance, it would be a nice touch to thank the NPS rangers and staff that you see around the Tidal Basin. I’m sure they’d appreciate it.
Kwanzan Cherry Blossoms
The Yoshino cherry blossoms might be nearly done, but the Kwanzan cherry blossoms are just getting started.
There aren’t as many of them around the Tidal Basin, but they’re especially pretty, with vibrant and dense (and larger) pink flowers. I have a post on where to find them near the Tidal Basin here.
Here’s an example of how they were looking as of this morning.
Wow … thanks to your updates, I was able to tune my train trip up to DC from early last week to late in the week and caught peak blossom time Friday, Saturday and Sunday enjoying biking all around the city each day. Plus, added in the magnolias behind the Smithsonian at Enid “some rich person” gardens which were glorious, enhanced by many beautiful Asians in colorful dresses and umbrellas, taking lots of pictures together there. It also occurred all throughout the cherry blossoms, too, was an unexpected delight of added beauty.
Thanks for your work, it really made a wonderful few days for me and timed my travel to perfection!