3. Brooklyn Botanic Garden
Located within the Prospect Park neighborhood, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden offers fifty-two acres of beautiful natural landscapes. New Yorkers can find respite in the zen Japanese Garden, visit the rock garden, smell the flowers in the fragrance garden, and soak up the beauty of the site’s many varied landscapes. it is also one of the best places in NYC to see Cherry Blossoms!
Before being developed into the stunning gardens we see today, the land here was used as an ash dump. The first horticultural display to be planted at the site was what is today the Native Flora Garden, created in 1911. Original plans for the park were designed by Frederick Jr. and John Charles Olmsted, the sons of Frederick Olmsted, but the job was completed by Harold Caparn. Caparn also lent his landscape design services to Bronx Zoo, Columbus Park in Yonkers, John Jay Park on the Upper East Side, and other green spaces in the New York City region.