Cherry Blossoms and More in Flower Town: The Breathtaking Blooms of Athens, Ohio
From Spring to Spring
When my daughter (and collaborator on this website!) Ally and son and I moved to Athens, Ohio in August of 2020, we didn’t know entirely what to expect. We’d read descriptions of the town online and seen photos but hadn’t been able to visit before moving here due to the global pandemic.
We moved from Strasbourg, France where my children were born and grew up and this is their first experience, in their early 20s, to actually live full time right smack dab in the middle of the United States! I myself am originally from a college town in Wisconsin so life in a small, midwestern town is not foreign to me, although it has been quite some time since I’ve lived in the US. In some respects I feel like I’ve traveled back in time when I’m reminded of things from my childhood and the advantages of small-town life. I’m fortunate enough to live in a neighborhood where there are quite a few children who love to ride bikes back and forth to each others’ houses and play outside for hours, just like we did when I was growing up way back when. I see them trudging off to school (now that schools have opened up again) each morning to head off to school in the same distinctive yellow school buses that have been transporting American kids for decades!
Our activities have been quite limited since we moved here because of COVID but one thing that’s been consistent and has gotten us out and about to discover our new town has been the long, daily walks with our dog, Kylah, all around our neighborhood and beyond. When the pandemic hit in France in the Spring of 2020 we were allotted one hour a day to leave our homes and it was then that we cemented our habit of hour-long outings. We were so fortunate that the weather was gorgeous and we could get out and enjoy the blooming all around us.
The Flowers of Athens, Ohio
Now it’s Spring in Athens in 2021, our first in our new home, and we didn’t know what the changing season would bring. I must say we have been astounded at the beauty flourishing all around us!
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We started snapping pictures of the flowers as the first buds came out in early March and have been flabbergasted by the number of varieties that have been blooming in succession ever since!
Cherry Blossoms of Athens, Ohio!
We have family in Maryland and have been to visit when the world renowned cherry blossoms of neighboring Washington, DC are in full bloom. Little did I know that in moving to Athens, we had come to another town named by National Geographic as one of the best places in the US for cherry tree blooms. The 175 blossoming cherry trees on the Ohio University campus were presented in 1979 as a gift from sister institution, Chubu University in Japan, the native land of these trees. Peak bloom started March 30th this year and, thanks to the cool night temperatures, lasted about 2 weeks! We were fortunate to see them several times while the blossoms gradually opened, ringing in the changing of the seasons and the transition away from the chill of winter toward warmer, longer days.
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As the Spring warmth took hold, there were further additions to the rainbow of colors we were experiencing in Athens. Here are more of the most mind-blowing blooms we came across on our walks around town.
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If you have any flower photos from Athens and beyond that you’d like to share, we encourage you to go to our Facebook page and post them there.
Thank you for joining us on our flower journey, we hope you enjoyed it as much as we did! We’ll do our best to give you the names of the stupendous blooms in our galleries but don’t hesitate to let us know if you have some botanical expertise to share!
Gallery 1 - Crocuses, Royal Star Magnolia, Checkered Lily, Daffodils, Pansies, Jonquils, Magnolia, Droopy Flower Bush ;) Tulips and Daffodils, Garden Hyacinth, Forsythia, Lenten Rose, White Violets, White Tree Flowers ;) Dark Purple Magnolia, Pansies
Gallery 2 - Daffodils, Grape Hyacinth, Tulips, Jonquils, Magenta Garden Hyacinth, White Daffodils, Jonquils, Pear Tree Blossoms, Tulips, Bi-colored Daffodils, Flowering Quince, Poet’s Narcissus, Phlox, Dogwood, Tulip, Jonquils, Virginia Bluebells
Gallery 3 - White and Pink Cherry Blossoms, Japanese Flowering Cherry, possibly Pear, Peach and Crab Apple mixed in there
Gallery 4 - Flowering Dogwood, Periwinkle, White Dogwood, Eastern Redbud, Koreanspice Viburnum, White Violets, Narcissus Jonquil Daffodil, Rhododendron, White Dogwood, Flowering Dogwood, Eastern Redbud, Forget-Me-Not, Cushion Spurge, Flowering Dogwood, Ivory Magnolia, Green Seed Pods ;)) Eastern Redbud, White Dogwood, Japanese Maple, Dandelions, Flowering Dogwood, Peach Cherry Pear Crab Apple Blossoms ;) Variegated Syrian Milk Thistle, White Dogwood