Dogwood / Sakura

Remember back when the U-City loop had bradford pears and there would be great clouds of pretty petals swirling around in the spring?  They're gone now.  Their memory isn't though.

What is spring in St. Louis?  Daffodils and tulips?  Tulip trees? 

Spring is kind of a big deal in Korea and Japan.  Japan is known for its cherry blossoms.  Is there anything more Japanese than this image?

Japanese news stations don't just track weather.  They also track something called the Sakura Front.  Sakura means cherry blossom.  It's a big deal, and it sweeps through the country.  Flowers are national news and national pride.  You can travel with them if you'd like. 

Korea also has cherry blossoms.  I've seen them.

One of the most admirable things about Korean people is their capacity for wonderment in the presence of rare and amazing things.  It could be food prepared in a strange way, a road in Jeju that appears to make your car roll uphill when idle, a bridge with fountains, whatever.
We Americans may like flowers, but rarely do we travel in great droves to see them and stare gap-mouthed at them saying, "uwah!"  or "Jot-tah!" 
Flowers are beautiful.  Awestruck faces are beautiful too.  I'd like to bring wonder to St. Louis

The two great harbingers of spring in Seoul are forsythia and cherry blossoms.  forsythia grows in St. Louis.  UMSL used to have loads of it, but have since yanked almost all of it out.  I always thought it was native to the US.  It's Asian though, and it's wonderful.

Forsythia (개나리) comes just a little before the cherry blossoms, but can often be seen with them.

In Seoul, in the spring, for just a few short weeks, the island of Yeoiudo becomes surreal and people flock there to appreciate it.

If both these plants are not native to Missouri, then it begs the question of what ought to be planted in St. Louis to have a similiar effect.  The state tree, the Dogwood, looks quite lovely in the spring.

 The state flower, the Hawthorn might also have its place in an urban environment.  Let's not leave out the humble redbud though.  It's a short tree, but they're all over the region.  They're easy to propagate, and they look beautiful in groups. 

Why is there no redbud street in the city?

What if a particular neighborhood of the city got a national reputation for being beautiful in the spring.  Operation Brightside shouldn't be investing money in annuals that need to be watered and constantly replaced.  We should invest in wooden neighbors that will look more and more beautiful with time.