March 31, 2006
According to UW Economics Professor Dick Starts, "Thirty Yoshino cherry trees outline "the Quad" on the University of Washington campus. Every March, the trees burst into glorious white and rosy pink. But the display of our ornamental cherries is more than a wonder of nature -- there's a story.

The trees began public life in Seattle's Washington Park Arboretum shortly before the Second World War, rooted on land that was later needed for construction of the 520 bridge. With bulldozers headed for the cherries, a small group formed to save them. Despite advice that the trees were too old to survive a transplant, in December 1964 the cherries were stripped to the roots, tossed on flatbed trucks, driven to UW, pruned to within an inch of their lives, and planted to begin their new role in the Quad." [link]

And that's where I saw them today, nearly 42 years later. They are beautiful. Many people were taking pictures of them. Here are seven.