NEW YORK CITY — Cherry blossom season is blooming across New York City in its predictably unpredictable fashion.
After a mild winter, early blooming cherry varieties are already at peak bloom along the west side of Central Park’s reservoir — and other types likely will pop ahead of schedule this spring, experts told Patch.
But warm weather is only one factor that guides when cherry buds burst into colorful blossoms, said Sara Evans, senior manager and curator of the living collection at The Green-Wood Cemetery.
“It is not always predictable,” she said. “The anticipation of when peak bloom is going to happen, we can never know because there’s so many variables.”
Buckle up, bud watchers — the ride toward New York City’s yearly cherry blossom extravaganza is going to be its usual surprise.
‘They’re really popping’
Timing is everything for much in life, and peeping cherry blossoms is no exception.
Some of New York City’s prime cherry blossom spots — Central Park, Brooklyn Botanic Gardens, New York Botanical Garden — have dedicated trackers to tell what’s in bloom. The Central Park And Brooklyn Botanic maps, in fact, track cherry blossoms on a location-by-location or tree-by-tree basis.
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Peter Haupt, tree care manager for Central Park Conservancy, said that park’s tracker is designed to help blossom heads get to where cherries are in peak bloom.
And when peak bloom unfolds depend on what kind of cherry tree, Haupt said. The park has 3,200 individual cherry trees of several different species and varieties, from black cherries to ornamental, he said.
Okame cherries as of Friday had reached their peak, giving onlookers a dazzling display on the west side of the reservoir.
“They’re really popping,” he said. “This is a little early, but it’s fairly typical for this variety.”
After the Okame cherries, other varieties will start to bloom in succession, Haupt said.
“It all sort of culminates around mid-April for a peak for all the combined varieties,” he said.
But when exactly that crescendo of color will unfurl this spring is an open question.
‘My strategy would not be a one-time visit’
Tracking cherry blossom blooms has been a long-standing study for many cultures, said Evans, at The Green-Wood Cemetery.
The cemetery’s grounds, which are an accredited arboretum, reflect that diverse heritage.
Of its 403 trees in the Prunus genus, the cemetery has 172 blossoming cherries among 28 species and cultivars, Evans said. Most of those flowering cherries are imports from Asia — the Kanzan cherry and the Yoshino, she said.
Take a walk along the cemetery’s north quadrant near Valley Water and Battle Hill, and people can see the greatest concentration of flowering cherries, Evans said.
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Buds on the cemetery’s Yoshino cherries were flushing green starting last week, she said, the start of a process that has occurred over dozens of past springs.
“We estimate them to be about 100 years old,” she said. “They are so beautifully gnarly.”
About April 5, the Yoshino cherries should be near or at peak bloom, Evans said.
“I think we’re almost on target for that, they could be a few days earlier,” she said.
The anticipated earlier bloom is because of a relatively mild winter and warmer recent temperatures, Evans said. But many other factors, from precipitation to light conditions, can affect when the blossoms really explode, whether earlier or later, she said.
All that can be said for sure is that the Yoshino cherries will bloom first, followed by the Kanzan cherries in mid-April, she said. The Kanzan cherries are the same variety that brings flowery spring displays in Washington, D.C.
That’s right — the cherry tree intimately tied to spring in our nation’s capital is actually a botanical immigrant.
Evans recommends that blossom peepers start visiting Green-Wood and other spots starting in late March.
“I would visit the cemetery at least once week from the end of March through all of April,” she said.
“My strategy would not be a one-time visit, it would be multiple visits.”
Even if New Yorkers miss the peak bloom, Haupt said they could still be in for a treat. He said toward the end of blossom season the ground along the Central Park reservoir is covered with nearly as many petals as in the trees.
“You get this real fairytale atmosphere,” he said.
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