Cool architecture. A couple of flowerless, leafless trees of unknown species. Still drivin' ...
Cool building. Washington has LOTS of cool buildings.
Washington Monument. Must be getting close... Cherry trees are planted willy-nilly throughout D.C., but "the" trees are along the banks of the Potomac, and the Washington Monument is on the Potomac.
Ah, ha! We think this must be a cherry tree! The whole cherry tree thing started in 1885 when one Eliza Schidmore, a photographer (in 1885? She was certainly on the cutting edge of technology!) Schidmore came home from Japan with the idea of adding some color to D.C. The city of Washington, D.C. simply ignored her. Over twenty years later, she's still hung up on the idea and decides to raise funds to buy them herself. She buddied up with First Lady Helen Taft who had lived in Japan for awhile and knew of the beauty of blossoming cherry trees. (You know, I never learned much about the Taft's in my history classes, but these folks keep popping up everywhere now that I'm doing my own research.)
Well, when you get First Ladies involved things start poppin' !! The Japanese consul in New York got wind of the plans and suggested his government make a gift of the cherry trees to them.
The story doesn't end there, though, because nothing in life is simple.
The City of Tokyo donated two thousand cherry trees to be planted along the Potomac River. They were shipped to Seattle and finally reached D.C. in January, 1910. Oops! The U.S. Department of Agriculture discovered those 2,000 trees were crawling with insects and nematodes, and the trees themselves were diseased. To protect America's trees, they decided to destroy (almost) all 2,000 trees - as in burn them! And so, with President Taft's approval, they did - without so much as a "by your leave" to the Japanese embassy.
WELL! Another (major) oops! The cherry blossom "is a potent symbol equated with the evanescence of human life and epitomizes the transformation of Japanese culture throughout the ages." How do you think the Japanese felt about the burning of their gift? How would YOU feel about having a gift you gave burned? But, diplomacy (LOTS of diplomacy) eventually worked its magic, and the mayor of Tokyo chose to donate not 2,000 trees but actually increased it to 3,000 trees! AND, he ordered that these 3,000 were to be "taken in December 1910 from the famous collection along the bank of the Arakawa River in Adachi Ward, a suburb of Tokyo, and grafted onto specially selected understock produced in Itami City, Hyogo Prefecture."
THESE trees reached D.C., and in a ceremony on March 27, 1912, two were planted by Mrs. Taft and Viscountess Chinda, wife of the Japanese Ambassador, planted two Yoshino cherry trees on the northern bank of the Tidal Basin, about 125 feet south of what is now Independence Avenue, SW. These two original trees still stand several hundred yards west of the John Paul Jones Memorial, located at the terminus of 17th Street, SW. Situated near the bases of the trees is a large bronze plaque which commemorates the occasion.
By the time we got to the cherry trees on the Potomac we were too late - blooms were mostly gone and everything was leafed out. Not all is lost though, because now we know the story!!
Remember I said "almost" all of those first 2,000 trees were burned? Well, in an Evening Star article on January 29, 1910, mention is made of a dozen of the "buggiest trees" being saved for further study, and "planted out in the experimental plot of the bureau, and there will be an expert entomologist with a dark lantern, and a butterfly net, cyanide bottle and other lethal weapons placed on guard over the trees, to see what sort of bugs develop."
And with that image, I bid you adieu!
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