We celebrate their blossoms with an annual festival, but what does it take to get them to grow?
MACON, Ga. —
This report has been contributed by Rylee Kirk, a student from Mercer University’s Center for Collaborative Journalism.
Pam Carswell is the president and CEO of the Keep Macon-Bibb Beautiful Commission, so she knows just what it takes to make Macon so beautiful.
Cherry blossoms!
“Honestly, they're easy, but they're high maintenance," said Carswell. "The best time to plant them is when it’s cold and the ground is cold in the winter, or early, early spring when the ground is still cool. You plant them and they like partial sun.”
However, you can’t just plant your cherry tree and then forget about it.
“Once the leaves fall, then you need to kind of rake them and pull them away. Climate has a lot to do with the cherry trees. If we have a really drought summer it affects them. If it's very, very wet then we worry about them getting shot hole disease,” she said.
This disease is very dangerous to the trees.
“It’s a fungus that happens when you’ve had a lot of rain and then you have a lot of hot humidity. That fungus will grow and it just kind of just chokes out the tree and they’ve never had a chance,” Carswell said.
The trees know what they want.
“They’re a type of tree they have to go through all the seasons. Like I said, they thrive on cold weather. Sometimes you can plant them up on a hill and they do very well," she said.
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