Is it true cherry blossoms are already blooming in Washington?
 

Thought I heard a news guy say they were blooming months early because of warm weather. No plans to go see them - just curious.

Must have been a February Fool's joke. That whole blooming process does take a while, starting in early March and ending with the blooms three to five weeks later.

Punxsutawney Phil does his thing today (Feb 2).

The buds can come out earlier than I thought, even late Feb. according to:
http://www.nps.gov/nacc/cherry/index.htm
So maybe the buds are out.

Oh, here it is, the first stage is Green Color in Buds:
http://www.nps.gov/nacc/cherry/updated.htm
in 1998, that was Feb 12 but Puffy White was not until 38 days later.

Last year, the Peak Bloom was on the day of the National Cherry Blossom Parade and it was a gorgeous day, and I was in the parade, and I met emd, and didn't mind the crowd because it was just so beautiful around the Tidal Basin. It's worth the trip.

As temperatures reached the 60s last weekend I saw some blooms around Capitol Hill. There are many varieties of flowering trees around here (and at least three types of cherry trees), and so I'm pretty sure the ones that grow around the Tidal Basin didn't pop. But it doesn't take much warmth to get some trees to blossom way too early!

Good Morning America ran same story again this AM - right before GroundHog Day story - so who knows if it is a joke or not. (I hope the GroundHog bites someone some year - I would be really ticked off if someone dragged me out of my hibernation to meet and greet)

Ok, if GMA says so then I believe that something is happening with the trees. I couldn't find anything about it in a quick scan of the GMA webpage. Punx Phil says 6 more weeks of winter, so if the bud have reached the peduncular elongation stage then they will likely be killed off.

I just drove by the Cherry Blossom trees on the Mall three hours ago and did not notice any of them blossoming.

I just read Washington Post on-line - they say some flowering trees are blooming, many buds are swelling, but any cold snap will slow them down until their rightful time to bloom. So it seems abbydog has the most accurate info.

I think GMA has a global warming agenda!

According to Dubya, blooms or no blooms, there ain't no such thing as global warming...smirk, snigger, poke Rummy in the ribs.....

Curt, I'm the George with the wooden teeth. But I never chopped down a cherry tree!

Could people be confusing plum blossoms with cherry blossoms?

I saw one cherry tree blooming in Arlington last week. Most of them aren't yet, but the buds are swelling.