After months of dreary weather and bare branches, it’s finally cherry blossom season in New York City.
This means that roughly 35,000 ornamental cherry trees around the city will be bursting with white and pink petals for the next month or so, drawing thousands of people outside to enjoy them.
Here’s an overview of what kind of cherry blossoms are in New York City, when they’ll bloom and where you can find them.
When is peak cherry blossom season?
Most of New York’s cherry trees are in bloom by mid-April, though for certain types it can be a bit earlier or later. Once a tree starts blooming, it’ll hold its blossoms for about 10 days.
When, exactly, each tree begins to flower can be hard to predict, and depends on the temperature and the amount of daylight it receives. Because the past few winters have been relatively mild, the city’s cherry trees have been blooming a little earlier than usual.
This year, at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, the first bloom was recorded on March 10, Shauna Moore, the garden’s director of horticulture, said. But peak bloom, when rows and rows of vibrant pink flowers appear on the garden’s Cherry Esplanade and Cherry Walk, is still a few weeks away.
