A New York Spring Calendar - Blooming Times, Seasonal Events, and Wildlife

Read the updated Spring 2013 Calendar here.

Winter, we are so over you.

Blooming Times

• If you've spotted small yellow flowers on the bare stems of small ornamental trees this week, you're likely looking at the Cornelian Cherry Dogwood, an excellent harbinger of Spring.

• Central Park Conservancy's website lists blooming times within the park. During the month of March we begin to see crocus, daffodils, forsythia, snowdrops, witch-hazel, and hellebores. Species tulips will emerge in several places, but the Shakespeare Garden and Conservatory Garden are particularly good places to catch the beginning of Spring blooms.

• Citywide Blooming Calendar from New York City Department of Parks & Recreation
April is the month when full blooms appear in New York City, and this NYC Parks website provides a handy monthly guide to the specific locations of blooming trees, flowers, shrubs, and buds.

• Heritage Crabapple Trees. New York City Department of Parks & Recreation
Celebrating the great beautiful flowering crabapples, this page on the NYC Parks site explains why you can't buy and plant a crabapple today and expect it to look as beautiful as those in Central Park.
• Website of The New York Botanical Garden, Bronx River Parkway at Fordham Road Bronx. The Garden is open year-round, Tuesday-Sunday, 10am - 6pm. Check the website for exceptions.

• Walking Off the Big Apple's favorite spring walk is wandering in the Ramble in Central Park. The closest thing in New York to the back nine at Augusta. A favorite for birdwatching.

• Million TreesNYC. A citywide, public-private program to plant and care for one million new trees across the City's five boroughs over the next
decade.
• NYC Parks page honoring a Revolutionary-era white oak in Prospect Park that gave its life for its country.

• Look for the book, New York Trees: A Field Guide to the Metropolitan Area, by Edward S. Barnard.

• See the Wikipedia entry on the Oldest Living Thing in New York: Queens Giant, an old Tulip Poplar.

• Prospect Park in Brooklyn was hit particularly hard in the storm that rolled through the city on March 13-14, 2010. Nearly fifty old trees came down. Help out with your donations. Visit the Prospect Park Alliance website to learn more.

• The Metropolitan Museum of Art's medieval branch, The Cloisters Museum & Gardens, in uptown Manhattan, is one of the best places to see varieties of plants in bloom. Check out the museum's blog, The Medieval Garden Enclosed.

• According to the Victory Seeds website, the average last frost in New York City is April 13.

Spring Events for March and April 2010

• Wednesday, March 17, 2010 St. Patrick's Day Parade. Fifth Avenue, from 44th to 86th Streets. Begins at 11 a.m.

• Friday, March 19, 2010 - Sunday, March 21, 2010. Go Green Expo, Pier 92 12th Avenue & W 55th Street, New York, NY

• Sunday, April 4, 2010. Easter Parade. Fifth Avenue, beginning near St. Patrick's Cathedral.

• Monday April 5 at 1:10 p.m. Opening Day, New York Mets vs. the Florida Marlins. Citi Field.
• April 5 - 11, 2010. For those on the Tiger watch, the Masters Tournament takes place in Augusta, Georgia.

• Tuesday, April 13, 2010 TBD Opening Day, New York Yankees vs. Los Angeles Angels. Yankee Stadium.

• Tuesday, April 13, 2010. 9:30 p.m. The hit TV show Glee returns for its Spring season. More Spring associations of Glee - Matthew Morrison, who plays the coach of the Glee Club, sang "Younger Than Springtime" in his role in the Broadway revival of South Pacific. Lea Michele, who plays one of the talented singers in the club, starred in Spring Awakening.

• Sunday, April 18, 2010. Greek Independence Day Parade. Fifth Avenue.

• Sunday, April 25, 2010 - Sunday, April 25, 2010 NYC GROWS. Union Square Park New York, NY. The New York City Department of Parks & Recreation's annual NYC GROWS Garden Festival, where members of the public can come take part in activities and demonstrations that promote gardening.

• April 21- May 2. Tribeca Film Festival. Some of the special events take place outdoors.

• May 1, 2010. Japanese Cherry Blossom Festival - Sakura Matsuri 10 a.m. - 6 p.m. Rain or Shine. Free with admission. Celebration of Japanese culture and the blossoming of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden's 220 cherry trees. Also, see the garden's Cherry Blossom Status Map.

Religious Holidays

• Easter Sunday falls on April 4, 2010. Holy Week begins with Palm Sunday on March 28, 2010.

• Passover begins at sunset on Monday, March 29, 2010 and continues for 7 days until Monday, April 5.

Critters

• The recent appearance of coyotes in Manhattan has excited many a city dweller. People have spotted this furtive dog-like creature near Columbia University, down in Chelsea near the High Line, near the Pond and Heckscher Playground in Central Park. The website Urban Hawks keeps track of the wildlife in the city, and their recent photos of the coyote were quite spectacular. Urban Hawks also recently shared a reader's tip that red-tailed hawks were building a nest on top of One Fifth Avenue, the iconic Art Deco skyscraper just north of Washington Square Park. The big birds flying over the distinctive step-back tower looked like something out of a German expressionist horror film.

• Urban Wildlife Appreciation Day. Saturday, April 10, 2010. 12:00 p.m.-3:00 p.m. Fort Tryon Park, Cloister Lawn, Manhattan.

• New York City Birding: See the home page of NYC Audubon for events, trips, classes, and programs.

• The blog The City Birder is a good source of information for birdwatching in the big city.

“My favorite smell is the first smell of spring in New York." - Andy Warhol

Images from the archives of Walking Off the Big Apple. Highly recommended for this time of year - hot chocolate with melting peeps, pictured above.

Related post:
When the Cherry Blossoms Fall: A Walk Through the Brooklyn Botanic Garden