Fun Maps: Brooklyn Botanic Garden Cherrywatch Tracks Bloom of Cherry Blossoms

2016 is the 35th anniversary of Sakura Matsuri, the annual cherry blossom festival at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden (BBG). While the festival isn’t until April 30th, you can already catch cherry blossoms in bloom at the garden. In fact, BBG has a handy “Cherrywatch” map that gets updated daily showing the bloom state of the cherry trees and what species they are. The above is just a screenshot, but on the BBG website, you can see based on the key whether a specific tree is pre-bloom, at first bloom, peak bloom or post-bloom.

Hover over a particular cherry tree, click on “Learn More,” and you’ll discover more information about each species. There are 26 species and cultivars in Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s Flowering Cherry Collection. Each tree will remain in flower for no more than a week.

At the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, you can find the cherry blossoms in the Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden, the Cherry Cultivars Area, on Cherry Walk, at the Cherry Esplanade, in the Osborne Garden, in the Bonzai Collection and a few other locations. You can also take a virtual tour of the Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden and the Cherry Esplanade during cherry blossom season, as seen in 2013.

Next, read about the Top 10 Secrets of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden and the secrets of Prospect Park.