Famed cherry blossoms at Duke Gardens may be stripped by storm
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Storm and warm March may have shortened Duke Gardens’ cherry blossom peak.
- Duke Gardens warns fewer blossoms; will update bloom watch by 8 a.m. Friday.
- Gardens had nearly 89,000 visitors last March, 37,000 during peak bloom.
The long-awaited cherry blossom season at Duke Gardens may be short-lived.
A string of showers and thunderstorms on Thursday, March 12, caused many of the cherry blossom petals at the Sarah P. Duke Gardens to fall faster than usual, prompting a warning from the gardens for fans looking to venture to the gardens this weekend.
“You can see from the petals on the ground and the green leaves emerging on the branches that the bloom is finishing,” according to the Duke Gardens’ Facebook page. “Today’s rain will cause even more to fall. There may be a few blossoms on the trees as we head into the weekend, but not many.”
The 55-acre botanical garden surrounded by Duke University estimated the blooms would begin on Monday, March 9, with a peak bloom expected Friday, March 13, and Saturday, March 14. But the Triangle had an unusually warm March encouraging the blooms to open and fade faster.
If it had just been the cold, that might have preserved the blooms for potential weekend visitors, but the rain has caused many of the petals to fall, according to the garden’s cherry bloom watch page.
There might be a few blooms this weekend, but “probably not a ton” with the gardens promising to update its bloom watch website, gardens.duke.edu/cherry-blossoms/ by 8 a.m. Friday, March 13, to help people solidify their weekend plans.
“We’re reminded of one of the reasons cherry blossoms have been celebrated for centuries — their ephemeral quality,” according to a post on Duke Gardens Facebook page.
Duke Gardens had nearly 89,000 visitors last March including 37,000 during the peak bloom season, The News & Observer previously reported.
“They form this really beautiful canopy of pale pink,” said Lauren Smith Hong, director of communications for the gardens, in a previous interview with The N&O. “So when you look up at the sky, all you see are cherry blossoms. It has become a very, very popular attraction for us. We generally see peak visitation for the year around peak bloom of the cherry blossoms.”
