The Cherry Blossom Festival

Lavishly illustrated, fact-filled, in a new enhanced paperback edition, The Cherry Blossom Festival: Sakura Celebration commemorates the gift of the trees from Japan to our Nation’s capital in 1912, one hundred years ago. Extensive photographs and illustrations complement intriguing stories of how the Japanese cherry blossom trees came to be planted around the tidal basin and the eventual development of the National Cherry Blossom Festival. The festival, an annual week-long celebration, has become one of D.C’s most welcomed, first signs of spring. In the book we get the inside story and details covering the multitude of events surrounding this honoring of the trees and their extraordinary beauty. Not only does it cover the history behind the trees and the celebration but it also appeals to gardening enthusiasts, with descriptions of the many varieties of the cherry trees, the upkeep they require, Japanese garden design and even useful gardening tips.

Ann McClellan of Washington, DC Ann McClellan's life-long love of trees began in New Jersey where she was lucky enough to grow up on an arboretum-like campus laid out by Frederick Law Olmsted. Now a Washington, DC, resident, she has held executive positions at the Smithsonian Institution, World Wildlife Fund, the American Association of Museums, and the George Washington University Law School. An experienced public speaker, she enjoys