The Cherry Trees Are Blooming in Prospect Park! The Cherry Trees Are Blooming in Prospect Park!

Photo courtesy of erlton/Instagram

PROSPECT PARK, BROOKLYN — We meant to post this yesterday. We swear we did. But then something big and horrific happened in Belgium and bomb dogs filled the subway and smoke started pouring from Grand Central and a man with a mallet went postal on Flatbush and Akai Gurley's killer was pretty much pardoned, and we all but forgot about the very time-sensitive news event that is the start of cherry-blossom season in Prospect Park.

So here's the deal.

The Brooklyn Botanic Garden, located on the east side of the park, contains within its borders more than 150 cherry trees.

Each year, somewhere around late March or early April, the garden's cherry trees begin to blossom. This year, perhaps because we've had some unseasonably warm weather for late winter/early spring, the trees have begun to blossom more than a week before the end of March.

On Tuesday, a single tree entered first bloom.

By Wednesday, two more trees had entered first bloom, according to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden's online bloom tracker.

"The rest of the cherry blossoms will appear in the four or so weeks following this first bloom," garden officials say. "No one tree remains in flower for more than a week, and there is no moment when all are blooming at once."

So, by our calculations, the cherry trees will only be blooming in Prospect Park until maybe early May.

Which is all to say: Stop reading this, put down your phone, round up your kids/dogs/boyfriends/whatever and go drink in cherry-blossom season before other, seemingly more important things start getting in the way.