Admiring the beauty of freshly bloomed cherry blossom trees is an annual spring tradition! After weeks of speculating, the city of Toronto is predicting cherry blossom peak bloom later this week due to the warmer temperatures.
The cherry blossoms will typically last between four and 10 days, and there are several locations across the city where you can enjoy the view, including city parks, the Exhibition Place grounds, and the University of Toronto and York University campuses.
If you don’t mind the crowds, High Park is the place to be.
In April 1959, the Japanese ambassador to Canada presented 2000 Japanese Somei-Yoshino Sakura trees as a gift to Toronto for their support of Japanese-Canadian refugees after WWII. Many of the trees were planted along High Park Trail around Grenadier Pond, which today has the most impressive grove of Sakura–cherry blossom trees in the city!
In 1984, several Japanese cherry trees were planted along a pathway west of the Children’s Adventure Playground in High Park. In the early 200s, 34 Yoshino Sakura trees were donated and planted on the east shore of Grenadier Pond near the Maple Leaf Garden, followed by an additional 16 Sakura trees planted near the original 1959 planting site.
In 2019, new trees were planted in a special ceremony to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Sakura trees donated to High Park in 1959, making the park a Sakura paradise!
Tens of thousands of people flock to High Park each year to savour the luscious trees covered in pink petals.
“It is always a special time of year at High Park to enjoy the cherry blossoms in bloom and admire their beauty,” Councillor Gord Perks (Parkdale-High Park) said in a statement. “If possible, please plan your trip using the TTC to visit the park.”
To help manage visitor volume, there’ll be no vehicle access or parking inside the park beginning Monday, May 5, for the duration of peak bloom (and car access and parking inside High Park are prohibited during the weekends).
As always, visitors are welcome to enjoy the blossoms but respect the trees, so avoid climbing the cherry blossoms or removing the branches.
If crowds aren’t your thing, there are plenty of other areas across the where you can enjoy the cherry blossoms!
