by Margaret Bracken, Landscape Architect, NYC Parks; Chief of Design & Construction, RPC
Even after 23 years working on design, construction and horticulture in Riverside Park, I’m still thrilled anew every spring when I see our cherry trees flowering, one of the first signs the long winter is over, and spring is on the way. Blooming season is a bit of a moving target and can vary from year to year, frequently beginning as early as late March and, depending on the species, running through April into early May. Spread throughout the Riverside Park, there are three species of ornamental Japanese cherry trees, Okame, Yoshino and Kwanzan, and one native black cherry tree.
First out of the gate is always the Okame cherry blooming in late March or early April. Okame produces abundant, long-lasting rose-pink flowers which cover the bare winter tree limbs and brighten the early spring landscape.
You can find them at West Harlem Piers Park at 125th Street on the waterfront; along the Greenway at 100th Street and north of 135th Street and 79th Street east of the Rotunda with one particularly lovely single specimen at 103rd Street and Firemen’s Island.
The next to bloom is the stunner of the Japanese flowering trio, the Yoshino. With delicate pale pink flowers and a graceful spreading canopy, Yoshino is the species most associated with the famous cherry plantings at the tidal basin in Washington, DC.
Although none of the original trees remain, the earliest Yoshino plantings in Riverside Park and throughout the city were a gift from Japan in 1912. This donation was repeated in 2012 on the 100-year anniversary of the original gift. Our Yoshinos are planted in masses, which really emphasizes the cloud-like impact of the blossoms.
These special trees can be enjoyed at 100th Street at the waterfront and park interior, from the 95th Street park entrance running south to 91st Street, Crab Apple Grove at 92nd Street, 83rd Street Parkway verges, Cherry Walk from 100th Street to 125th Street and the park interior from 83rd Street to the 79th Street entrance. Not surprisingly, one of the most stunning Yoshino plantings is in Sakura Park, opposite General Grant’s Tomb. This year these lovely trees must be enjoyed from the western perimeter sidewalk, as Sakura Park is currently under construction.
Kwanzan, the last of the trio is the showiest of the Japanese flowering cherries. The workhorse of the group, they are fast growing and very hardy with a more upright form than Yoshino.
Kwanzan cherries are resilient and reliably covered with deep pink double blooms and can be found at 72nd Street on the waterfront and many of the same locations as Yoshinos, flowering shortly after and concurrent with the crab apples.
The combination of both cherries and crab apples provides an unusually extended blooming season in Riverside Park, clouds of delicate blooms followed by a carpet of pink petals.
The native black cherry is the last to bloom, with pendulous white blooms appearing high up in the canopy after the tree has leafed out. Black cherries are an aggressive, self-seeding tree to be found throughout the woodland areas of the park. They provide an excellent food source for the local bird population.
All four species not only provide beauty park-wide in the spring but are also a great addition to our fall palette, with leaves coloring from bronze to a golden orange, an all-season asset to Riverside Park. Riverside Park Conservancy continues to replace these much-loved trees, funding the addition of a new generation to augment and replace existing trees as they age.
Cell phone cameras at the ready. See you in the park!
