Cherry Trees Weather Weird Winter

On March 27, 1912, first lady Helen Herron Taft and Viscountess Chinda, wife of the Japanese ambassador, planted the first trees on the north bank of the Tidal Basin in West Potomac Park.

"For two weeks, year after year after year during the festival, our nation's capital becomes Japan town," said John R. Malott, president of the Japan-America Society of Washington, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year and is sponsoring the post-parade street party.

This year's festival will feature, among other things, a work of installation art by Yoko Ono, widow of slain Beatle John Lennon. The work by Ono, who organizers said might attend the festival at some point, is called "Wish Trees" and will enable festival-goers to attach written wishes to the empty branches of the trees.

Yesterday's events culminated with DeFeo's pronouncements.

Afterward, he explained the source of the early-bloom scare.

"There is a particular variety of cherry, not the one on the Tidal Basin," that can bloom in the autumn during warm weather, he said. "What happened was it was warm in December, and the tree would bloom." And people worried about a too-early bloom.

Happens a lot, DeFeo said. "Wrong tree."

The right trees "are not going to be early," he said. "They're going to be right on time."

Details on the festival can be found at http://www.nationalcherryblossomfestival.org.