For The New York Times: ‘Merchant of Landscapes’: The Lasting Footprint of a Japanese Gardener in Mexico by Elda Cantu
The Mexican president wanted cherry trees.
It was 1930, and President Pascual Ortiz Rubio had seen them lining the streets of Washington and desired the same beautiful spectacle for his country’s capital.
To try to fulfill the leader’s request, the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs tapped Tatsugoro Matsumoto, a Japanese immigrant who tended the gardens of Chapultepec, then the presidential residence in Mexico City. But winters in the capital were not cold enough for the cherries to fully blossom, the expert gardener said. The president wouldn’t get his hanami, the flower-contemplation ritual the Japanese celebrate every spring.
At least not a pink one.
If cherries were not suitable for the Mexican capital, another tree with colorful flowers might do the trick: jacarandas.
