Title: Bloomin' NYC [music]

Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. To end the show and the week on a note of beauty, let's talk about this stunning, beautiful time of year in our area with all the spring flowers, and especially flowering trees at peak loveliness. One day it's gray and those slush piles seem like they'll never melt, and then, boom, the cherry blossoms burst forth and wow. Let's crowdsource some favorite spots for flower watching this weekend. Call or text us at 212-433-WNYC. That's 212-433-9692 with your favorite trees, group of trees, or viewing spot for an April 11th or 12th weekend. 212-433-9692. Who has one?

While we're getting your suggestions, we're joined by Haidee Chu, reporter for the news organization THE CITY, who was one of the authors of an amazing mapping project of all the great spots for the cherry, magnolia, and crabapple trees in bloom now. You can find it at thecity.nyc, and by James Kaechele, a certified master arborist and the manager of the New York City Parks Department's Tree Time program who was interviewed for Haidee's article. Welcome, Haidee Chu and James Kaechele.

Haidee Chu: Thanks for having us.

James Kaechele: Hello, Brian.

Brian Lehrer: First, can I ask each of you for a favorite spot to flower watch these days? Haidee, do you have one?

Haidee Chu: Oh, gosh, yes. I have to say I'm partial to my local park, but my local park is also a stunning one. Hunter's Point South Park. It's a beautiful park year-round. You got these views of Midtown Manhattan, but in the springtime it's just especially lovely with this ring of cherries around. What I love about it is it's not just somewhere that tourists go to see cherry blossoms, but it's also just a very much functioning local park. I was just sitting under there the other day writing the story and was so inspired because I see babies learning how to walk under these trees and people practicing baseball with their dads, and there's a basketball court next to it.

The poetry of everyday life just really shines there with the cherry blossom.

Brian Lehrer: My kid played Little League there. What a beautiful spot on the Queen's waterfront. James, how about one for you?

James Kaechele: I love Flushing Meadows Corona Park. There couldn't be a more New York location than around the Unisphere. There's a fabulous collection of cherries of various varieties all around it.

Brian Lehrer: Haidee, you found out that some of the trees we call cherry trees are really cherry plum trees. What's the difference?

Haidee Chu: Yes, it's a surprising discovery of mine when I was just looking through the data and searching the word cherry and I realized there were cherry plum trees, and I started looking into it. I'm like, "Is this a cherry tree or this a plum tree?" I realized that a lot of-- I see the common denominator for all these cherry tree names, and it's from the genus Prunus, which I later learned is actually a stone fruit variety. Specifically, I'm not an arborist like James, so I don't have the details of how to identify them differently, but from my understanding is that maybe their leaf colors are different or the length of the leaves are different, but they look similar in terms of the way they blossom.

Brian Lehrer: James, what are the trees that are most in bloom now? Cherry trees, cherry plum trees, and what else?

James Kaechele: I see so many cherries in bloom all around the city. Particularly over the last 10 days, those Yoshino cherries, those light pink or white trees, have just been in their glory. The cool nights have helped them stay on. It's like keeping your spring mix in the refrigerator. They keep really well. As we move on here in the coming weeks, gosh, we're going to see even more.

Brian Lehrer: We're getting some calls from around the region with some favorite spots. Here's John in Sea Cliff, North Shore, Nassau county. Rretired arborist, he says. Hi, John. You're on WNYC.

John: Hey, thank you, Brian. Yes, I'm 70 years old. I was a certified arborist. Now I'm a retired arborist. I'm on the Sea Cliff Tree Commission. It's interesting to see different villages approach their care for and encouragement of planting trees and stuff. I spoke to your person and said that Sea Cliff is like an arboretum. You cross the village into Glen Cove, and it's tree bare. You see power lines and rooftops. You come into a town like Garden City on Long Island or Sea Cliff, or Locust Valley, and they prioritize in their village, care of trees and planting of trees. Understanding that old trees age out, yes, they have to come down, they're dangerous, et cetera.

The tree commission gets to encourage people to plant flowering trees. There are three levels, so we plant tall trees, middle-sized trees, small trees. We plant trees for birds, we plant trees for whatever. It's a consciousness that is--

Brian Lehrer: A conscious decision, really, you're saying. John, I'm going to leave it there, but I'm so glad you called with that. James, for you working for the Parks Department, really, what John is saying is it's a policy choice that different localities make whether to have a lot of beautiful flowering trees?

James Kaechele: Absolutely. Prioritizing the planting and care of trees is something that it is, in my opinion, as an arborist, key to having a fabulous place to live.

Brian Lehrer: Here's an interesting thing. Three callers are calling about the same spot in New Jersey, and I guess they come from around the area to that park. I will let one of the callers say the name of it, but we're getting a call from Bloomfield, we're getting a call from Summit, and we're getting a call from Glen Ridge, all about the same spot. I'm going to let Joyce in Bloomfield do the honors. Hi, Joyce. You're on WNYC.

Joyce: Hello. Thank you for taking my call.

Brian Lehrer: And the winner is--

Joyce: Me.

Brian Lehrer: No, I'm just saying, what's the spot you're calling about?

Joyce: Oh, I'm sorry. [laughs] Branch Brook Park. It's mostly in Newark, but part of it is in Belleville, New Jersey, and is spectacular. It is enormous. I think it's the biggest concentration of cherry trees in the US. It's also, I believe-- sorry, not sure, an Olmsted park. The beauty of it is not only the park and the trees, but the families go there. There are picnics, people taking photographs. It's just such a great vibe. I go a couple of times during the season and it's a happy place.

Brian Lehrer: Joyce, thank you very much for shouting out Branch Brook Park in Essex, and thanks to the other two people who are calling for that, too. Haidee, it looks like from your charts on THE CITY news site that Staten Island and Queens have the most flowering trees in the five boroughs. Does that chart include the parks or just privately owned land?

Haidee Chu: There's a toggle on our map that lets you see the tree density, including parks and outside of parks. Including parks, obviously the hotspots are Central Park, Prospect Park, Flushing Meadows Corona Park. In general, if we're talking about New York City streets, then yes, like eastern Queens, southeastern Queens and Staten Island really is taking the lead. I think Queens Village and St. Albans shows up for not just cherry trees, but also magnolias and crabapples. They have a great concentration there. Staten island being the greenest borough, have have a lot of those as well.

Brian Lehrer: Some texts that are coming in. "Ditmas Park, largest area of homes on beautiful tree lined streets. Love living here. Just south of Prospect Park." Another one, "The shore at Gantry State park in Long Island City facing Manhattan. Amazing combination of blooming nature, the river and Manhattan skyline." Another one, "184th to 185th Streets on Wadsworth Avenue. Gorgeous white flowering callery pear trees." Another one, "Green-Wood Cemetery has amazing flowers and flowering trees throughout its 478 acres" One more, "Conservatory Garden in Central Park." So many people texting great places to see flowering trees right now.

James, are you seeing changes in when the trees bloom based on the warming of the planet?

James Kaechele: I sure am. I've been doing this work in New York City for the last 18 years and each year seems to be a little bit earlier and less dependable. This year in particular, I'm seeing some things bloom at the same time that I typically would have seen bloom a couple weeks apart. Yes, this changing weather has really impacted how trees wake up in the spring. Makes it harder for us to do our job.

Brian Lehrer: Haidee, again, shouting out your site's mapping project. How do you even do it? How did you go about mapping New York City flowering trees?

Haidee Chu: Shout out to the Parks Department for keeping such meticulous data on trees. It's not actually just for cherry trees. They have a massive data set of all the trees in the city and it keeps tabs of all their conditions, their stump size. The mapping is really just based on that data.

Brian Lehrer: James, you want to get a last word in here about the Parks Department's Tree Time program that you manage?

James Kaechele: If you need a tree guard to protect the tree that's out in front of your house or your office, reach out to us. It's not just about planting new trees. It's about protecting the canopy that the existing trees give us. That's a great way to take care of them.

Brian Lehrer: Right. Haidee, you want to just give people the URL if they want to look at your mapping project?

Haidee Chu: Oh, yes, the URL is super long. If you just go to our new site, thecity.nyc, it should be on our homepage and you can find it there.

Brian Lehrer: All right, thecity.nyc, where Haidee Chu is a reporter. James Kaechele is an arborist and a manager of the Parks Department's Tree Time program. Thank you so much for joining us, and enjoy the views this weekend wherever you enjoy them.

James Kaechele: Enjoy the trees.

Haidee Chu: You as well. Nice to have you.

Brian Lehrer: That's The Brian Lehrer Show for today, produced by Lisa Allison, Mary Croke, Amina Srna, Carl Boisrond, and Esperanza Rosenbaum, with help today from Sasha Linden Cohen. Our interns this spring are Arlo Bivens and Jack Walker. Zach Gottehrer-Cohen produces our Daily Politics Podcast, and Megan Ryan is the head of Live Radio. Juliana Fonda and Milton Ruiz at the audio controls. Have a great weekend, everyone, and stay tuned for Alison.

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