Spring Blossom Cities: 10 Places for Cherry Trees, Wisteria and Jacarandas

For a few short weeks each spring, whole neighbourhoods turn pink, white and purple. From Tokyo’s castle moat to the jacaranda avenues of Pretoria, these ten places put on some of the world’s finest displays of cherry blossom, wisteria and jacaranda, and each has its own history behind the flowers.

Flowering depends on the weather each year, so treat the months below as a guide and follow local bloom reports before you travel.

Cherry blossoms and wisteria in Japan and Korea

1. Chidorigafuchi, Tokyo, Japan

Chidorigafuchi is a moat of the old Edo Castle, now the Imperial Palace, and its name comes from chidori, the plover, whose shape the water is said to resemble. About 140 cherry trees line the 700-metre Chidorigafuchi Ryokudo greenway beside the moat, mostly Somei-Yoshino, the pale pink hybrid that is the most widely planted cherry in Japan. In early spring their branches hang over the water and form a tunnel of blossom, and the view of rowing boats beneath them is one of Tokyo’s classic sakura scenes. Check GO TOKYO for each season’s bloom news and evening illuminations.

2. Jinhae, Changwon, South Korea

Jinhae, a district of Changwon on Korea’s south coast, hosts the country’s biggest cherry blossom event, the Jinhae Gunhangje Festival. It began in 1963 and since 2011 has run from 1 to 10 April. Some 347,000 Jeju King Cherry trees bloom across the town, and the 2011 festival drew about 2.6 million visitors. The two most famous spots are the Yeojwacheon Stream, a 1.5-kilometre blossom tunnel with a boardwalk and night lighting, and the 800-metre tunnel of trees along the railway at Gyeonghwa Station.

3. Kawachi Fujien, Kitakyushu, Japan

Kawachi Fujien is a private garden in the hills of Yahatahigashi Ward, Kitakyushu, in Fukuoka Prefecture on the island of Kyushu. More than 20 kinds of wisteria grow here, and two tunnels of hanging blooms, the longer about 110 metres, arch over the paths. The Japan National Tourism Organization has regional travel information for Kyushu. Spring visits need a ticket booked in advance; the garden also opens in autumn for its autumn colours. For another famous wisteria, see our feature on Ashikaga Flower Park.

Cherry blossoms in North America

4. New York City, United States

Brooklyn Botanic Garden holds more than 200 cherry trees of 42 Asian species and varieties, planted along the Cherry Walk and the Cherry Esplanade. The first 30 trees went in in 1921; the Esplanade, with 76 trees in tidy rows, followed in 1941. Because different trees flower at different times, blooms run from late March or early April to mid-May, and the garden’s CherryWatch map tracks them tree by tree. The garden has held a cherry blossom festival every year since 1982. Central Park’s trees add more colour across the river; see our Central Park guide.

5. Vancouver, Canada

Vancouver has more than 40,000 cherry trees spread across its streets and parks. The Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival, founded in 2005 to commemorate 800 cherry trees that Japan gave the city, publishes bloom maps each April so you can plan a walk through one neighbourhood at peak colour.

Jacarandas in Pretoria, South Africa

6. Pretoria, South Africa

Pretoria is known as the Jacaranda City. Around 70,000 jacarandas line its streets, parks and gardens, and every October, in the Southern Hemisphere spring, they turn the city purple. The first two trees were planted in 1888 by J.D. Cilliers at Myrtle Lodge in Sunnyside, and both still stand at Sunnyside Primary School. In 1906 James Clark donated 200 saplings for Koch Street, now Bosman Street, and city engineer Walton Jameson, known as “Jacaranda Jim”, led the planting across the city.

Cherry blossoms in Europe

7. Kungsträdgården, Stockholm, Sweden

Kungsträdgården, the King’s Garden, began as a royal kitchen garden first recorded in 1430 and is now one of central Stockholm’s favourite meeting places. Its 63 Japanese cherry trees were planted in August 1998, and their spring bloom draws crowds to the park. Visit Stockholm suggests a fika under the trees. On a rainy day, head underground to Stockholm’s station art.

8. London, United Kingdom

London’s royal parks and gardens make it easy to string together a day of blossom: Kew Gardens, Kensington Gardens, Regent’s Park and Greenwich Park all have fine flowering cherries in spring, each with its own layout and collection.

9. Vilnius, Lithuania

On the right bank of the Neris River, beside the National Gallery of Art, the Chiune Sugihara Sakura Park holds 200 cherry trees planted in 2001 as “a gift from Japan’s people to Lithuania”. It honours Chiune Sugihara, the Japanese diplomat in Kaunas who in 1939–1940 issued transit visas to Jewish refugees against his ministry’s instructions, saving about 6,000 people. The trees bloom for about two weeks, usually in April and sometimes in May.

10. Bloesempark, Amstelveen, Netherlands

The Bloesempark lies in the Amsterdamse Bos, a 1,000-hectare forest park created between 1934 and 1970, mostly within Amstelveen just south of Amsterdam. In 2000 the Japan Women’s Club donated 400 Japanese cherry trees, which now stand beside the Amstelveense Poel lake. A black granite memorial added in 2012 honours the victims of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, and the original trees are being replaced in a renewal project running from 2025 to 2029. Visit Amstelveen has access details for the busy blossom weeks.

Tips for blossom season

• Pick a base you would enjoy even without peak bloom, and keep one flexible day.
• Follow live bloom maps such as CherryWatch or the Vancouver festival’s map.
• Go early in the morning for softer light and quieter paths.
• Enjoy the trees without shaking branches or picking flowers.

For a different kind of looking closely in Japan, read about Tsuneko Sasamoto’s photographic life.

Related reading

• 29 Wonderful Paths
• Twenty Tree Tunnels: Flowering Streets, Garden Arches and Woodland Paths
• Rua Gonçalo de Carvalho: Porto Alegre’s Tree-Lined Street

Sources

• Ministry of the Environment Japan: Chidorigafuchi Moat
• Wikipedia: Jinhae Gunhangje Festival
• Tokyo Weekender: Kawachi Wisteria Garden; Japan Travel: Kawachi Fuji-en Wisteria Tunnels
• Wikipedia: Brooklyn Botanic Garden; BBG CherryWatch
• Wikipedia: Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival
• Wikipedia: Pretoria
• Wikipedia: Kungsträdgården
• Go Vilnius: Chiune Sugihara Sakura Park
• Wikipedia: Amsterdamse Bos
• Photographs: Shane Hayes, Chris Gullett, Aaron Choi, missbuttercup, Michael Jurick, Vivienne Gucwa, Hector Melo, NewsCn, thewanderblogger, Tomas Vinickis, Invivo Oz, Amsterdamian; collection first shared by Places to See in Your Lifetime.