SEE: LATE BLOOMS AT SAKURA PARK

The lingering cold weather has delayed trees from blossoming until this past weekend so we took a walk over to Sakura Park by Riverside Drive and 122nd Street this past Saturday.  Back in 1912, the former Claremont Park was renamed Sakura Park after Japanese citizens banded together to donate cherry trees from Japan. Decades later, a  sculptural Toro was also donated to the small green space from the city of Tokyo in 1960, with Crown Prince Akihito presiding over the ceremony.  As can be seen from the above image, not much has really happened on the blooming front but that will probably change this week.  There were about a dozen trees on the site as far as we can remember but the last major hurricane destroyed a few and the parks department has replaced them with other species for some reason.  With that said, the view of Grant's tomb and the small gazebo that still remains is one of the more charming ones in the city even though the namesake  blossoming flora have diminished over the past years.  More photos will be updated later on in the week.