article_snippet: The city's first cherry trees were destroyed .
article_snippet: In 1910, 2,000 cherry trees arrived in Washington, thanks to a gift from the city of Tokyo and the advocacy of Eliza Ruhamah Scidmore, one of the first female board members of the National Geographic Society.
article_snippet: 2,000 cherry trees, however, were riddled with disease and were destroyed.
article_snippet: Two years later, first lady Helen Herron Taft planted one of the first of more than 3,000 replacement trees sent from Japan.
article_snippet: It's not all about cherry trees .
article_snippet: Two types of trees dominate .
article_snippet: In the 1912 gift of trees to Washington, there were 12 different varieties.
article_snippet: Descendants of the original trees live in Japan .
article_snippet: In 2011, about 120 trees propagated from D.C.'s surviving 1912 trees were sent back to Japan to preserve the genetic lineage of the symbolic trees.
article_snippet: Over the years, cuttings from the original trees have also been returned to Japan for horticultural projects.