Spring enthusiasts can keep track of the season’s flowers in New York State through both a progress report and an interactive digital map.
I LOVE NEW YORK, the state’s tourism board, has launched the “New York Blooms Report,” a springtime floral update across the Empire State’s 11 tourism counties.
As its own webpage on I LOVE NEW YORK’s website, the public can read this report and access the digital map to learn what flowers can be seen at New York’s public gardens or venues with gardens.
The report was launched on March 20, 2024 and will continue with weekly updates through early June.
Ross Levi, I LOVE NEW YORK’s vice president and executive director of tourism, spoke about the report at a media event at The Bronx’s New York Botanical Garden last week.
Levi explained that the idea for this campaign came from another online and seasonal project. During autumn, I LOVE NEW YORK puts together a New York Fall Foliage report that has shown to be the most popular section on their website.
“Every year, there are more visitors to our fall foliage report than there is to our home page,” said Levi. “That’s not a joke; that’s an actual stat. So we took inspiration from that and thought, well, what if we can do the exact same thing, but what’s something that might be like that to engage people in other seasons of the year.”
That thinking blossomed into the “New York Spring Blooms” report. Levi added that this spring report is designed to help travelers plan spring and early summer getaways “by showing them where they can see some of the most beautiful flowers across the state’s 11 beautiful vacation regions.”
Similar to the fall foliage report, this spring version uses in-person observations but is done by onsite professional experts at New York attractions. The information collectors consist of gardeners, arborists and botanists.
“In total, we have thirty partners that are working with us throughout New York State on the Spring Blooms project,” said Levi. “They include some of New York’s most iconic floral destinations.”
The partnering attractions are all listed here. They include the Brooklyn Botanic Garden and the New York Botanical Garden, in New York City; Sonnenberg Gardens & Mansion State Historic Park, in the Finger Lakes; Minna Anthony Common Nature Center, in the Thousand Islands-Seaway Region; Lyndhurst Mansion, in Hudson Valley; Buffalo & Erie County Botanical Gardens, in the Greater Niagara region; and King’s Garden at Fort Ticonderoga, in the Adirondacks.
The observatory data from these partners is submitted to the tourism board on Mondays. It’s all then compiled and published online on Wednesday afternoons.
With a summarizing headline, each report provides a detailed briefing on what flowers are in bloom and within what New York regions. News on and links to related events such as flower and garden shows through New York are also shown. Blog posts on New York spring-related trip ideas can be read as well.
The interactive map is categorized by five spring flowers found in New York. They are tulips, lilacs, magnolias, cherry blossoms and, the official flower of the State of New York, the rose.
At the NYBG media presentation, Jess Brock, I LOVE NEW YORK’s director of digital and social media, showed how the map works.
Clicking on the map brings up icons of all the five flowers that are linked to all of the participating venues. Users click on each flower icon—there’s also an icon for multiple blooms—to see the name of an attraction and the flowers planted there. A “More Info” link brings up more details on the selected attraction such as a brief description.
“We’re getting lots of incredible information about what’s blooming where,” said Brock.
In nodding to her job responsibilities, Brock noted that visitors can contribute to this project by posting and tagging their pictures with the hashtag #NYBloomsReport and I LOVE NEW YORK’s social media handles (on Facebook, X, Instagram and TikTok).
“We can share it on our social or feature it here on the ‘New York Blooms Report’ website,” Brock added.