High Park’s cherry trees may not blossom this year

Anyone planning on Instagramming the hell out of their cherry blossom picnic may want to sit down for this. Steve Joniak, who in past years has been reliable at forecasting peak bloom in High Park’s famous Somei-Yoshino cherry groves, writes on his Sakura Watch blog that this year’s fluctuating temperatures will prevent the vast majority of the little pink flowers from poking out of their buds.

“2016 proved to be such an up and down year that we simply didn’t have enough consecutive warm days to help the trees along,” Joniak writes. “[I]f they are stuck in this cycle long enough, they just forget [blossoming] and let the leaves take over instead.”

The High Park Nature Centre agrees with this assessment. “If they do bloom in mid-to-late May there will certainly be fewer flowers,” the centre’s website says.

The hordes of selfie-seeking flower enthusiasts who mob the park on Mother’s Day weekend every year may want to consider some indoor activities, instead. Trees are fickle, but mimosas will never let you down.