Beautiful Sunday: Sakura blossoms in the garden of the Smolny Convent

The garden of the Smolny Convent is one of the few places in the city where you can admire sakura blossoms without too much hurry and fuss. In recent years, admiring sakura has become a very popular event. More and more admirers of beauty gather around the blossoming trees. The garden of the Smolny Convent is located in a quiet neighbourhood, and it is not too popular with tourists, so it is less crowded than other places.

Sakura, as you know, is not a single tree - it is a common name for several different trees. What they have in common is their early flowering time and the delicate, exquisite beauty of their inflorescences. These trees are not typical of our city, all of the trees were specially planted and were able to grow through careful care. The largest number of sakura trees grows, as you would expect, in the Botanical Garden. On these spring days, there is a queue in front of the entrance to the Botanical Garden: information that the first flowers have already appeared quickly spread across social media.

Most people gather these days in the Friendship Garden on Liteiny Prospekt. It is a very small garden, but it is very conveniently located. Many people only need to make a short stop on their way to work or school to look at this garden. It is also always crowded around the sakura trees on the bank of the pond on Krestovsky Island. The park on Krestovsky Island is one of the city dwellers' favourite places for walks, and the blossoming trees attract walkers like a strong magnet.

The garden near the Smolny Convent, on the other hand, is far from popular routes. Local residents and a few office dwellers usually stroll here. But it is a very pleasant garden with fountains, flower beds and comfortable benches for resting. In spring, walking in this garden is very enjoyable, the beautiful contrasting shadows are pleasing to the eye.

For me, as for many other citizens, the tradition of admiring sakura has become a new pleasant spring tradition. I did not immediately realise the charm of these trees. After all, in our city, apple trees, cherry trees, chestnut trees and many other trees blossom in spring. But then I realised that the sakura blossoms appear first, they open the beautiful blooming season. The sakura flowers appear even earlier than the leaves, and the crowns of these trees look like pink clouds.

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Smartphone	Google Pixel 3a
Location	Saint Petersburg, Russia