D.C.'s cherry blossoms are one step closer to peak bloom.
The National Park Service, or NPS, announced Thursday the blooms reached the fourth stage: peduncle elongation. It's not only the favorite of the six phases to pronounce, but the one that gives us our first peek at those pretty pink petals.
On Monday, the blossoms reached the third stage.
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"Soon, we'll see some white petals emerge from the green florets," the NPS posted on Twitter.
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.
