Kwanzan cherry blossoms
BUFFALO’S NEW CHERRY BLOSSOM FESTIVAL
Last May (2014), in collaboration with the Buffalo History Museum and the Buffalo Olmsted Parks Conservancy, volunteers organized the First Annual Buffalo Cherry Blossom Festival, a celebration of cherry blossoms, music, activities, and Japanese culture.
Most activities took place in the Japanese Garden behind the Buffalo History Museum, in the museum, or in Delaware Park. Activities included a tea ceremony, cherry blossom ball, music, films, poetry, food and sake tastings, picnics in the Garden, a tree planting, and a free family day including boat rides on Hoyt Lake. There were even pink lights illuminating the museum at night.
The second festival is scheduled for May 2-9, 2015. Organizers have launched an Indiegogo campaign to help fund the next event, including 100 urban cherry tree plantings. The Olmsted Conservancy gardeners will present tree planting and care events. There will also be cherry trees for sale for homeowners and corporations*. A video about the event can be seen here.
Buffalo Cherry Blossom Festival logo by Michael Morgulis
Festival organizer Trudy Stern says, “Buffalo deserves a celebration after snow melt time. Buffalo has been famous for blizzards. We are creating a variation on our blizzardy notoriety by planting a vast number of cherry trees that will eventually create breathtaking beauty with their ‘blizzards’ of petals.”
The Buffalo Cherry Blossom Festival follows Washington DC’s National Festival and is hoping to attract visitors who will be on their way to Niagara Falls. Those who enjoy the natural beauty of Niagara are bound to also enjoy Buffalo’s beautiful Japanese Garden within the Fredrick Law Olmsted parks system, the first of Olmsted’s renowned plans.
*More tree planting info: this spring, Kwanzan and Yoshino cherry trees will be offered. For a donation of $500 people can have a tree planted on their own property by a landscaping professional. A share of a tree can be donated to the Japanese Garden of Buffalo and the Olmsted Conservancy (100.00 suggested). Conservancy staff will plant them in Delaware Park around the Japanese Garden. On Sunday May 3 the Cherry Blossom Festival and Conservancy staff will offer a tree planting and maintenance demonstration event in the Japanese garden. For more information, please write [email protected]. Lastly, the WNY Nursery and Landscape Association has given a gift of a beautiful Japanese Maple to the Japanese Garden of Buffalo that will planted in March – thank you to them.
