Including the traditional art of supporting weeping cherry trees
As weeping cherry tree, planted in the 1950s, with new supports.
Who knew that the building of supports to keep old weeping cherry trees upright and alive is an ancient art in Japan? Not me, until I attended an event about the practice at the National Arboretum last week.
According to Arboretum Director Richard Olsen, the supports do more than keep limbs from falling. “The propping supporting the limb encourages the branch to continue growing. The Japanese view is it tricks the tree into thinking it has a new trunk. Something perhaps for arboriculturists to study and document!”
Seen here with the newly supported tree are grad student Hans Friedl, Japanese arborist Kurato Fujimoto, Richard Olsen, and landscape architect Ron Henderson. Henderson’s report of his trip documenting Japan’s most famous old cherry trees is on display in the Arboretum’s Bonsai and Penjing Museum.
The demonstration was part of an all-day celebration of flowering cherry trees at the Arboretum.
Demonstrating the making of the surprisingly artful supports for weeping cherries.
(See lots more event photos here.)
I was so happy to be invited to the reception, where I got to schmooze with friends, meet more garden people, and chomp down some very good food. Also, learn quite a lot from Richard Olsen’s and Ron Henderson’s words to the group.
Love for the Magnolia Collection
Elsewhere on the grounds of the Arboretum, there was LOTS of love on a beautiful Saturday for its Magnolia Collection. I love watching the people. 
Great color! 
And Classic Cherry Blossom Love in DC
I also visited the touristy part of DC this week and with cherry blossoms almost at their peak, the tourists and locals were out in force, even on a Tuesday.
Here, too, I’m more of a people-watcher than a cherry-blossom-photographer. With so much more to see during the Cherry Blossom Festival, happening now.
In the second photo, the man on the left is Hans Friedl, a graduate student, who translated for M. Fujimoto.
Thanks!@
Does my heart good to see something in gorgeous bloom. Still bleak here in the Midwest, with snow forecast for tonight.
I visited Kenrokuen Garden, a wonderful public park in Kanazawa, Japan in mid-November one year. It was still full of autumn colour but trees were already protected from snow using the Yukitsuri pole and rope technique. Kenrokuen was once a royal garden and open to the public since 1874.
Hard to beat the Tidal Basin in spring for beautiful photographs. Thank you for reminding us of years past. Always an inspiring experience.
Thanks for the bringing us along with your beautiful pictures! I’ve seen photos of supports for ancient cherry trees in Japan — good to see the National Arboretum respectfully drawing on such Japanese expertise and reverence for the trees. I struggle with the knowledge that the Tidal Basin cherry trees are doomed by sea-level rise.
Gorgeous photos! I visited the Brooklyn Botanic Garden a few years ago, on a weekday right before their cherry blossom festival. It was a perfect spring day, brilliant blue sky with fluffy blooms everywhere in sight, and the crowds weren’t overwhelming. I love people watching too – my partner is a photographer so we always check out the gear when folks are taking pictures.