Cherries
Flowering Cherries
March–May, October–November
More than 200 flowering cherry trees are planted across the Garden’s historic landscape, and their cheerful pink and white blossoms follow shortly after the magnolias in spring. A large and diverse planting of cherries is found along the curving path in the Cherry Collection. Many can also be found among the evergreens of the Arthur and Janet Ross Conifer Arboretum. A row of pink weeping cherries adorns the front of the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory, while others are interspersed among daffodils and crabapple trees on Daffodil Hill.
Dig Deeper
The Collection
Among this inspiring collection we have 543 individual flowering cherry trees which represent 82 different species, hybrids, and cultivated varieties.
- Early bloom: Okame cherries (Prunus × incam ‘Okame’) bloom throughout the month of March
- Mid-season bloom: Yoshino cherries (Prunus × yedoensis) bloom throughout the month of April
- Late-season bloom: Kanzan cherries (Prunus ‘Kanzan’) bloom from late April to mid-May
The Locations
Today, there are three main spaces to view the cherries among our living collections:
- Cherry Valley
- Ross Conifer Arboretum
- Along NYBG’s southern perimeter
Cherries are also planted as accent and ornamental trees along our paths and roadways and in other highly visible areas throughout the Garden’s 250 acres.
The Facts
Cherries have always been an important component of NYBG’s living collections. A range of botanical taxa were part of the original phylogenetic sequence within the Deciduous Arboretum, and ornamental specimens were used in displays and decorative plantings at entrances and other central areas from the very beginning of the Botanical Garden’s construction in the 1890s.
By 1910, the popularity of the flowering cherries among visitors inspired us to set aside a greater portion of the Deciduous Arboretum for a display of more than 100 Japanese flowering cherries.
The Archives
Our Steere Herbarium is home to millions of plant specimens that tell the story of our planet’s botanical biodiversity across centuries of time, which informs our efforts to save the plants of our world for future generations.
Peruse the herbarium specimens and stories that live here at NYBG.
