High Park cherry blossom peak bloom delayed due to Toronto’s chilly weather

The cherry blossoms in High Park are taking their sweet time to bloom this year after last week’s chilly weather according to the latest status update by Sakura Watch.

As of March 20, the buds in the park had progressed to Stage 2 — when the buds begin to transition from a brown-red colour to green — thanks to some unseasonably warm temperatures.

Anyone who has been living in Toronto this week needs not be told that the warm weather did not stick around, bringing snowfall and sub-zero temps late last week and over the weekend.

Thankfully resilient, the buds didn’t regress or die, but the cold snap did put a pause on their progress, keeping them in Stage 2 this week and slightly delaying the bloom.

In spite of this, Sakura Watch notes, the buds do seem to have grown slightly over the past week, and with springlike temperatures returning to the city — and hopefully sticking around — we should be back on track for development.

The trees are currently pushing through the last days of Stage 2, and are expected to enter Stage 3, where florets begin to become visible, next week.

Sakura Watch is anticipating the blossoms will begin to emerge around mid-April with a full bloom towards the end of the month, but Toronto will just have to wait and see what Mother Nature has in store to find out whether that prediction comes true.