of Branch Brook Park will be at their peak bloom.
.
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Flowering Cherry Trees at Branch Brook Park
Thursday, 9 April 2026
It is somewhat of a variable, when the 5,000+ flowering cherry trees
of Branch Brook Park will be at their peak bloom.
Sunny days. Mild temperatures. Steve said a local Yoshino cherry tree he saw went from bud to bloom in just three hours! Graciously, Paul said he'd drive. It is a smidge over an hour, taking 78 east to Garden State Parkway north to finish up on local roads. Our assumption: Thursday would be a relatively quiet day, especially compared to Friday / Saturday / Sunday.
We were wrong. Cars are allowed to park wherever there s a white line along the road. Not, mind you,
that there is space as wide as a car. Parked bumper to bumper, the cars protrude into the roadway, meaning
traffic is squeezing down the road. It is difficult to get pictures as I need a gap from cars coming and going.
This is an image I took through the windshield as Paul was driving. Look ahead, around the curve.
Cars, queued up, waiting for the light to change. Coming at us, even though I tried to crop it out.
I was at a library the next day, and mentioned our outing. The librarian used to live near the park with the flowering cherries. She said word has gotten out in the last few years, how magnificent are the flowering cherry trees, and now every day is as crowded as I found it to be yesterday, if not more so.
The park is open year round. There are no fees for entry or parking, or anything. But it is the time
of the cherry blossoms that bring hordes of visitors, for the flowers and also special scheduled events at the time.
Today it is the early, single flowered white Prunus ×yedoensis, Yoshino cherries that are flowering.
There is an infrequent pink single flowered tree. But coming next, it will be
the double flowered Kwanzan cherries in a week or two that are glorious.
Crowded as is the park (and difficult as it is to find roadside parking) Paul manages to squeak in
and let me out when I spy a tree gloriously backlit by sunshine that causes it to glow with the light.
The sculptural structure of some of the trees is - even beyond their flowering -
aesthetically attractive. Would these few make a trip worthwhile? Probably not.
We cope with the traffic inside the park for about an hour, traversing only a portion
of its roads. Will I come again . . . not this year. Another year? That remains to be seen.
Remember, at any time of year, from the comfort of home, we may enjoy cherry blossoms in bloom in the pages of a book.
If you have any comments or questions, you can e-mail me: jgglatt@gmail.com
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