In this Chesapeake Bay magazine article, Lou Meyer, business developer for Davey's mid-Atlantic region shares about the early cherry blossom blooms
It crept up quickly this year: the National Park Service (NPS) recently announced that cherry blossom viewing in the DMV region should peak between March 23rd and 26th. Around the Bay region already, more and more pink and white blooms are beginning to show, proving that even after all these years Mother Nature still enjoys keeping us on our toes.
The early bloom is due to a few factors, but most important is the number of “degree days” between winter and spring, or those days that reach a certain temperature and amount of sunlight.
“All blooms follow degree days,” says Davey Tree Expert Company arborist Lou Meyer. “It may be the 6th of March, or the 75th day of the year, but degree days will say something different. And in the Mid-Atlantic, we’re seeing a lot of wild stuff happening.”
The March 23rd date isn’t the earliest on record: trees began to bloom on March 15 back in 1990, and were as late as mid-April back in the 1950s. “It does move around through time,” says Meyer.
To learn more about cherry blossom blooms this year, click here.
The Davey Tree Expert Company provides research-driven tree services, grounds maintenance and environmental consulting for residential, utility, commercial and environmental partners in the U.S. and Canada. Established in 1880 and headquartered in Kent, Ohio, Davey has over 12,000 employees and is the ninth largest employee-owned company in the U.S. This year, Davey celebrates 45 years of employee ownership – Join us and apply today!
