Cherry Blossom in full bloom
There are about 30 trees that have been on the UW Quad since 1962. They were transplanted here from their original location in the Washington Park Arboretum where they had been since some time before 1936.
The arrangement of the trees in the Quad was designed by Eric Hoyte, the university landscape architect.
The cherries are Somei-Yoshino flowering cherries, or Sakura. They are the same type of tree that is planted around the tidal basin in Washington, DC and celebrated during the National Cherry Blossom Festival.
An article in the Arboretum Bulletin published in the spring of 1953 says that approximately 4000 various species of cherry trees were gifted to Seattle from Yokohama City in 1930.
UW has many trees throughout campus including clones of the Quad’s trees. These trees were grown at nurseries near Mt. Vernon, WA and planted in Parrington Lawn in 2017.