I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, this is the best winter ever. (Sorry, snow fiends.) But I would be sad if something happened to the cherry blossoms. Luckily, officials think they’ll be okay:

The peak bloom time for the 1,678 trees around the Mall’s Tidal Basin will be announced March 1, the first day of what the National Weather Service predicts will be a warmer-than-normal month, a coda to an unseasonably mild winter.

The National Park Service’s rule of thumb is “unless it’s extreme and prolonged warm or cold weather, there’s nothing to worry about,” said Danielle Piacente, spokeswoman for the National Cherry Blossom Festival. “Once [the trees] start blooming is when the weather change really affects them. We should be OK for now.”

Related: Who here gardens? I managed to kill off my indoor rosemary plant over the winter, but I’m willing to try again. Any tips for the novices among us?

Photo by sdixclifford via Flickr/Creative Commons Attribution 2.0