MACON, Ga. — The Cherry Blossom Festival is right around the corner and people are waiting to see exactly when the cherry blossom trees will be in full bloom.
“The cherry trees are very unusual. They’re very beautiful when they bloom, when they flower, and Macon has a lot of beautiful plants but the Yoshinos are really unique,” said Bill Fickling III.
Thousands of them sit on the Fickling farm alone. When you’re strolling around town, you’ll notice that cherry trees are literally everywhere.
“Macon has more cherry trees than any other city in the world,” said Fickling.
The beginning of the movement – and many of the trees – started growing right on his grandfather’s farm.
"He had a landscaper come in and put some trees in… they were supposed to plant dogwoods. A mystery tree appeared, but it bloomed in the spring. It was very, very beautiful but my grandfather didn't know what it was,” said Fickling.
He later found out it was a Yoshino cherry blossom tree.
"People would drive by and say ‘Where do I get those trees?’ and he didn't know where they came from or how to get them, so he began making cuttings of them and giving them away to people in town, and they would plant them in their yards,” said Fickling.
Carolyn Crayton came to a picnic one year and asked if his grandfather could donate 1,000 trees a year for 10 years.
"It wound up being 10,000 trees a year for many, many years and that's how the trees got started,” he said.
Eventually Crayton and the elder Fickling went on to create the Pinkest Party on Earth, also known as the Macon Cherry Blossom Festival. Fickling says they always try to make sure the festival dates include the average peak bloom date, which is March 23.
This year, a lot of the cherry blossom trees are blooming quicker.
"So the way we tell the way that the bloom is going and the time in which it will bloom is by looking at the buds, and you can see that the buds on this tree are just starting to spread out,” said Fickling.
He says if the weather stays warm, his trees will bloom in two or three weeks… meaning they should blossom just in time for the Pinkest Party on Earth, which would make his grandfather very happy.
The Cherry Blossom Festival runs March 18-27 at Carolyn Crayton Park (formerly Central City Park). You can also find plenty of trees at Third Street Park downtown, or you can follow the signs for the Cherry Blossom Trail which starts at Carolyn Crayton Park and runs up through the Ingleside, Rivoli, and Wesleyan neighborhoods.