Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images
Blossoms at their peak: Washington, DC's Japanese flowering cherry trees are predicted to reach peak bloom on April 1. The US capital's National Cherry Blossom Festival runs through April 14.
Courtesy Neal Piper
The National Cherry Blossom Festival started on March 20 in Washington. Every year millions of pink petals transform the city's landscape, signaling the start of spring. If you can't make a trip to the capital to see these delicate flowers bloom, enjoy their beauty through these photos taken over the years by CNN iReporters.
Courtesy Navid Baraty
New York resident Navid Baraty visited D.C. to see the cherry blossoms in 2012. It was his first time at the festival, and he said it was spectacular.
Courtesy Navid Baraty
The National Cherry Blossom Festival grew from humble beginnings, but now it's one of the largest springtime celebrations in the United States.
Courtesy Navid Baraty
Baraty, a photographer by trade, rarely shoots images of flowers, but he made an exception while at the festival. "I knew it was going to be gorgeous, but wasn't quite prepared for how stunning of a show it really was," he said.
Courtesy Navid Baraty
More than 1.5 million people travel to the capital to see these blooming flowers, according to the National Cherry Blossom Festival's website.
Courtesy Navid Baraty
A crowd walks under blooming cherry blossoms.
Courtesy Navid Baraty
D.C.'s cherry trees have hit their peak as early as March 15 in 1990 and as late as April 18 in 1958.
Courtesy Navid Baraty
The cherry blossom festival commemorates the gift of 3,020 cherry trees that Tokyo gave to Washington in 1912.
Courtesy Navid Baraty
The 1912 gift is celebrated every year in the US capital.
Courtesy Navid Baraty
The cherry trees' peak bloom, which is when 70% of the trees are blooming, is dependent on the weather.
Courtesy Ian Dixon
The Thomas Jefferson Memorial sits behind a blooming cluster of cherry blossoms.
Courtesy Felix Masi
The blossoms will attract a crowd no matter when they reach peak bloom.
Courtesy Felix Masi
In 1915, the United States government presented the people of Japan with flowering dogwood trees.
Courtesy Neal Piper
Cherry blossoms are a familiar springtime sight for Washington resident Neal Piper, who took these photos in March 2013. He was disappointed the blossoms bloomed a lot later than usual than 2012 because of cold weather.
Courtesy Neal Piper
Here, the cherry blossoms overlook the Tidal Basin in Washington.
Courtesy Neal Piper
Cherry blossom season makes the city's monuments even more lovely.
Neal Piper/CNN iReport
In the early 1980s, the United States government gave Japanese horticulturists some cuttings of cherry trees after a flood in Japan decimated many of the trees there.
Courtesy Neal Piper
Cherry blossoms bloom in a variety of countries during spring. You can find these delicate flowers in the United States, Japan, Germany, India and even Turkey, just to name a few nations this flowering plant calls home.
Courtesy Ian Dixon
Travelers enjoy the sight of cherry blossoms so much that crowds start gathering at sunrise, which is when Ian Dixon captured this photograph in March 2012. "Even at 7 a.m., it was getting tough to find good spots to shoot from due to all the photographers around," he said.

Editor’s Note:

CNN  — 

Away from the often partisan debates in Washington, there is much discussion about a flower.

Specifically, lots of people want to know when some of the USA capital’s most precious flowers will reach “peak bloom.”

The blooming of Washington, DC’s cherry blossoms is now predicted to reach its peak on Monday, April 1, two days earlier than the start of the original predicted peak bloom dates of April 3-6, according to the National Park Service and the city’s Cherry Blossom Watch.

19 best places to travel this spring

Cherry blossom experts define peak bloom as the day when 70% of the Yoshino variety cherry blossoms are open on the cherry trees surrounding the Tidal Basin.

“The National Park Service’s Peak Bloom Update!” announced the park service’s National Mall and Memorial Parks Twitter account. “Determining the peak bloom date requires checking both the forecast and where the trees are in the blooming process.”

With 280 characters rather than Twitter’s previous limit of 140 characters, the park service could go on: “The indicator tree is in full bloom & with temps forecast for the upper 70s this weekend, we now predict peak bloom will occur April 1!”

The best museums in Washington, D.C.

The National Cherry Blossom Festival starts on March 20 and runs through April 14 this year.

Washington’s cherry blossoms typically peak between the last week of March and the first week of April, but warmer or cooler temperatures can lead to earlier than usual blooms (March 15, 1990) and later than usual blooms (April 18, 1958).

A gift of 3,000 trees

Washington’s annual festival celebrates Tokyo’s 1912 gift of 3,020 cherry trees to the city.

The first trees actually arrived in 1910, partially in response to the advocacy of Eliza Ruhamah Scidmore, one of National Geographic Society’s first female board members.

When they were found to be diseased, they had to be destroyed. In 1912, first lady Helen Herron Taft planted a replacement tree, one of more than 3,000 new trees sent from Japan.

Sakura season: Your guide to Japanese cherry blossoms

While the 1912 gift of trees included 12 varieties, just two varieties – the Yoshino and Kwanzan – dominate.

The first official festival wasn’t held until 1935, and now it’s a celebrated annual event.

The white blossoms of the Yoshino are found close to the northern part of the Tidal Basin near the Washington Monument, while the pink blossoms of the Kwanzan trees are usually found in the East Potomac Park area.

Marnie Hunter and Geet Jeswani contributed to this story.