With the snow slowly starting to dissipate and above-seasonal temperatures warming the air, Torontonians can officially get excited for the 2025 Sakura cherry blossom season!
Sakura Steve (aka Steve Joniak) made his first visit of the year to High Park late last week and was pleasantly surprised to see many new cherry blossom trees planted throughout the key areas of the park.
The “buds appear healthy and plentiful,” he stated in a recent blog post.
As the city experienced a more normal winter this year, the schedule for this year’s Sakura bloom should align with the typical period of late April into early May.
“Of course[,] that prediction always comes with a giant IF – if the weather turns up the heat, we can see it earlier, but if the cold snaps return, or worse, a polar vortex event, that could push out the bloom dates later into May,” Joniak added.
The cherry-blossom expert noted how some of the more mature trees are in their final years and will no longer bloom. In recent years, other young trees had been pulled, broken and damaged by people who shook and pulled on them for photo ops or take-home souvenirs.
“We must respect the newly planted trees and let them grow to their full potential so they can one day replace the beauty we lost with new blooms in the years ahead–please don’t touch, pull or otherwise damage these young trees as YOU will be the ones ruining the chance for future blossoms to bloom,” he said.
Toronto has an eventful history with cherry blossoms. In April 1959, Toru-Hagiwara, the Japanese ambassador to Canada, presented 2,000 Japanese Somei-Yoshino Sakura trees as a gift to the city 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.
Throughout the years, more cherry blossoms trees were planted in and around the area, with new trees planted in a special ceremony in 2019 to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Sakura tree donation.
