Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s famed cherry blossoms are a Mom magnet
If you weren't there for Mother's Day, it's not too late – Catch them at their peak this week
Worth The Wait.
The puffy pink blossoms of Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s famed Cherry Esplanade are perfection.
You’re lucky – the iconic trees hit their peak later than usual. You can get a good look for yourself if you go soon.
That’s what throngs of families did Sunday for Mother’s Day, making the Central Brooklyn garden their go-to spot to celebrate Mom’s special day.
Mothers and children posed for photos under the magnificent flowering trees. An occasional breeze floated petals in gentle showers – the flowering kind – under sunshine and cerulean skies.
Folks also flocked to nearby lilac trees bursting with lush purple blooms and dramatic wisteria vines guarded by jealous bumblebees. Late-blooming tulips looked like they’d been hand-painted with scarlet stripes. Peony flowers the size of dinner plates were a bonus visual delight.
It seemed every dutiful offspring in Brooklyn had the same idea: Take Mama for a stroll among the posies. By early afternoon, the line of cars waiting to get into BBG’s Washington Avenue parking lot stretched all the way to Eastern Parkway.
But no matter. There was room for one and all to roam in the 52-acre park, over wide lawns dotted with leafy trees and into glamorous greenhouses full of exotic tropical plants.
In years when winter’s not so nasty – like 2013 – the famous Esplanade’s Prunus “Kanzan” trees, with their fat double blossoms and vibrant color, hit their peak in April in time for the garden’s popular Cherry Blossom Festival.
This year, the upside of Brooklyn’s vile winter was that the trees’ peak came later, and made Mother’s Day at BBG a visual thrill.
If you haven’t seen the cherry blossoms yet, the garden has switched to summer hours, and is open Tuesday through Friday 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. By the way, admission is free on Tuesdays. Other days, it’s $10 for adults, $5 for seniors and students and free for children under 12.
