Cherries jubilee

Southern Living, Mar 2003 by Bender, Steve

This Maryland neighborhood's trees not only herald spring, but are also the ties that bind this community together.

Spring is snowing in Kenwood. Along every street in this community northwest of Washington, D.C., white petals flutter down from the gnarled limbs of hundreds of flowering trees planted more than 70 years ago. The scene is breathtaking, and everywhere you look, people are taking it in-residents, schoolchildren, picnickers, painters, and carload after carload of wide-eyed gawkers.

The trees are Yoshino flowering cherries (Prunus x yedoensis), the same species selected by First Lady Helen Taft for planting around the Washington Tidal Basin in 1912. Flowers appear in early spring before the leaves, opening blush-pink then maturing to white. Native to Japan, these fast-growing trees form a wide, arching canopy about 35 feet high and wide-perfect for lining suburban streets. Kennedy & Chamberlain, the development company that built Kenwood on old dairy farmland in the early 1930s, knew this. They chose Yoshino flowering cherries as the new community's unifying element, planting many of the trees you see on these pages before building the first house or paving the first street. According to resident Ted Libbey, the neighborhood now boasts about 1,250 cherry trees.

Tending the Trees

All of those cherries need a lot of maintenance, but Kenwood is up to the job. Here, community involvement is considered a privilege rather than a burden, and nearly everyone gets into the act. More than 90% of residents belong to the Kenwood Citizens Association. Kenwood has a Welcoming Committee, a Beautification Committee, and a Juniors Committee for families with young children. The Kenwood Garden Club has been active for more than 50 years. In addition to putting on an Easter egg hunt, Halloween haunted house, and Fourth of July barbecue, residents even write, produce, and act in an original play each year.

"I know people who live 7, 8, 10 blocks away," says Barbara Ann Libbey, Ted's wife. "You don't see that in most communities around Washington. I know everybody because we attend all these functions together-dinners, neighborhood walk-arounds, and the lighting of the big Christmas tree in the circle."

Obviously, Kenwood takes care of

its own-and that goes double for the trees. The maintenance program works like this: The county buys, plants, and prunes all cherry trees in public spaces, such as entrances, parks, and traffic circles. But cherries lining streets in front of private homes are the homeowners' responsibility. Each year, the citizens association negotiates with local nurseries and landscaping companies to get the best price for replacing dead trees on private property; homeowners willingly pick up the tab.

"What would happen if somebody replaced their cherry with a purpleleaf plum?" I ask. Ted makes a slashing motion across his throat and suggests an especially painful surgical procedure. He's probably kidding, but I wouldn't risk it.

To help beginning gardeners, the garden club distributes care sheets for the cherries. A cherry tree chairman inspects the trees periodically to make sure people are following directions. Mary Shue, cochair of the Juniors Committee, found out what happens if you let things slide: "I got a note saying that overmulching had put my tree at risk."

Three Cheers for the Cherries

But when more than 1,000 cherry trees shower petals on every street in Kenwood, all the work is worth it. Residents turn out in a joyous celebration. Thousands of Washingtonians and tourists descend on the neighborhood to walk or drive its streets-people from the US. and as far away as China, India, Pakistan, France, and the Middle East-all reveling in the moment.

No group enjoys the spectacle more than the Japanese, who take pictures of themselves in front of the trees to send home to their country. So great is their enthusiasm that they don't always distinguish between public streets and private gardens. Recalls Kenwood resident Roger Whyte, "One morning, I walked outside, and two Japanese families were having breakfast by our pool."

The influx of visitors provides an ideal springboard for nascent free enterprise; local kids take advantage. At Abby and Joey's Lemonade stand, proprietors Abby and Joey Kathan (ages 12 and 9) earn up to $100 a day selling brownies, bottled water, and lemonade.

Folks say that once people move into Kenwood, they want to stay forever. It's easy to see why. People here know and care about their neighbors and take great pride in their surroundings. Barbara Ann sums up the general attitude this way. "I was out for a walk," she recalls, "and a woman came up to me and said, `You know you live in paradise, don't you?' And I said, `Yes, I do.'"

For more information about the garden tour, e-mail the Kenwood Garden Club at kenwoodgardentour @hotmail.com. To find out when the cherry trees are blooming in the Washington area, visit www.national cherryblossomfestival.org.