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Believe it or not, it’s already cherry blossom season in New York, and in some parts of the city, you can go see trees that are headed toward peak bloom right now.
The best part is that you don’t have to wander around aimlessly for hours to find the trees that are blooming. In fact, you can plan your cherry blossoms field trip ahead of time thanks to some up-to-date maps by The Central Park conservancy and The Brooklyn Botanical Garden that tell you exactly where you can see the beautiful once-a-year display by mother nature.
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Just like last year, the blooms are happening earlier this year than they have in the past because of climate change, but peak bloom season still tends to happen closer to the end of March and early April and can continue through May. But in Central Park, you can head to the Great Lawn right now to see cherry blossoms. The trees at Cherry Hill, Pilgrim Hill, and Sheep Meadow are still in their pre-peak stage, according to Central Park’s website.
In contrast, the Brooklyn Botanical Garden’s map still shows that most of its cherry blossoms are in the pre-bloom stage at the moment. One of the most emblematic spots to see the cherry blossom’s anywhere in New York is at the garden’s Cherry Esplanade, a big lawn that is surrounded by cherry and red oak trees, so make sure to check in on the park’s map for the latest updates on their bloom.
The New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx also has gradient graphs showing which flowers are currently in the process of blooming and how colorful they look now. Right now, it looks like cherry blossoms and daffodils have just begun to open there, but magnolias, azaleas and lilacs have yet to start.
Many of the famous cherry blossoms New Yorkers have grown to love in Manhattan were actually brought over from Japan in 1912 as a gift. Nearly as many cherry blossoms—12,500—were brought to New York as were to Washington, D.C., where they’re better known, but New York spread its cherry blossoms all throughout Upper Manhattan, so they can’t be appreciated all in one place the same way they can in the country’s capital, per the New York Times. That doesn’t mean that there’s not a lot of great places to see cherry blossoms, but it does mean that we have to do a little more research to know where, exactly, we have to go and when.
If you happen to have some knowledge around tree species, you can also customize your own cherry blossom excursion. According to the NYC Parks’ website, Okame trees, which have tiny pink flowers, begin to bloom around mid-to-late March, followed by Yoshino cherries and finally Kwanzan cherry trees, which have fluffier pink flowers and bloom around April.
Other great places to see the cherry blossoms include Sakura Park in Morningside Heights, Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in Queens, and Randall’s Island Park. You can check out our full list of cherry blossom recommendations here.