Get excited! ... OK, not too excited, since we've still got a bit of a wait — but D.C.'s cherry trees have entered stage 2 of their 6-phase blooming cycle, the National Park Service (NPS) announced Monday.
The blossoms are now in the "florets visible" phase, the NPS said, four days after they entered phase 1 ("green buds").
"We're moving right along," the NPS posted on Twitter. "The cherry trees are now at florets visible, the 2nd of 6 stages. Peak bloom should be fewer than 3 weeks away. Florets crossed!"
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The NPS has predicted the blossoms' peak bloom to happen about March 23-25 this year.
Peak bloom date is defined as when 70% of the blossoms on the Yoshino cherry trees along the Tidal Basin are open. It most often happens between the last week of March and the first week of April, the NPS said.
The year will be the first time since before the start of the pandemic that D.C. will celebrate a full, in-person National Cherry Blossom Festival. It's set for March 20-April 17.
