Spring has officially sprung in NYC over the last couple of weeks. I've loved the warmer weather, bright blue skies, and of course all the budding, blooming, and leafing going on around here. It's made me super excited to get out and be outside. One of my most favorite things during spring is the brand new leaves that appear on the trees. I love how bright green and fragile they get. It's almost like magic...one day the trees are bare and the next they're covered with new foliage. And the flowers! Spring is paradise for me.
We've been anxious to spend time out in the city, and this last Saturday, we finally got our chance. We decided to first visit Central Park's Conservatory Garden. We've been here a couple times before, and you can read about those visits here and here. Those visits occurred in the late summer and fall. The garden was very pretty both times, but I'd heard that it was extra gorgeous in the spring.
We took the subway in to Manhattan, and ended up on Lexington Ave and 86th St. The upper west side is very posh, so the area was beautiful. The streets are very clean and as we walked west toward Central park just off of Park Avenue. The planters around each tree along the sidewalk were brimming full of tulips in a myriad of shades. I love tulips! It's a very picturesque part of Manhattan.
Along with the square beds full of tulips, we found a few planters overflowing with bright spring flowers. I loved the ones with these flowering trees. Across the street from the planters, we found this synagogue. It's exterior was beautiful and I loved the Hebrew letters carved along the arch.
We passed the Guggenheim museum along our way. It's such a cool looking building. It kind of looks like a frosted cake to me. I just wish the art inside wasn't so modern...haha!
Soon after we passed the museum we crossed the street and wandered into the park. We followed the bike trail for a bit as it winds along the reservoir.
There were cherry trees in bloom every so often along the path, and they were just gorgeous. Our original plan that day was to go see the cherry blossoms at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden, but we weren't ready in time to make it out there during their free admission time from 10 to 12. It takes about an hour by subway to get there from our apartment, because we have to ride into Manhattan and then down and back across the river to Brooklyn. But, I digress. We were excited that we still got to see some cherry blossoms. Don't they just look like cotton candy or popcorn balls?
Each tree was just covered in flower clusters, to the point that some of the branches were arching downward from all that extra weight. It was incredible.
We finally made it to our destination and walked into the garden through the main gate. I was excited to see the rows of crabapple trees in bloom.
Brian patiently waited by the gate while I took some pictures. It's a really big gate.
We turned right and walk down to the English section of the garden, where we enjoyed the manicured hedges lined with beds full of daffodils, hyacinths, and tulips of all colors. The hedges weren't in the best shape, but the flower beds were just gorgeous
This multi-color planting of tulips was one of my favorites. I loved the color combination.
I loved the flowering tree overhanging the pond with the Secret Garden statue, but I think I preferred the pond in the fall when it was full of lily pads and koi fish.
Another of my favorites were these beautiful pink tulips. They were just lovely.
Surrounding the pink tulips, was a thick border of these bright blue bells. We both really liked these.
We left the English garden and strolled down the walkway underneath the blooming crabapples. They were so pretty, and we loved their gnarly, twisted trunks as well as their blooms.
We walked up the stairs of the large gazebo at one end of the Italian section. I loved the wisteria vines twining around the railing and up the pergola's metal beams. We were a bit early for the wisteria blooms, the buds were just starting to form. I don't know if we'll make it back when they bloom, but I bet it's just gorgeous.
From up above, we had great views of the garden.
We wandered across the pergola area and walked down the stairs on the other side, where we were greeted with these gorgeous crabapple blossoms. These were my favorite of all the trees in the garden.
We walked down the pathway underneath this second section of crabapple trees. We found a bench and spent a bit of time just sitting and talking and enjoying the beauty all around us. It was perfect... a little bit of heaven in the city.
We hated to move on, but wanted to see the rest of the garden before we went to get some food. We finished our tour in the French section. I was a little underwhelmed with this section during this visit.
Don't get me wrong, the daffodils and tulips were gorgeous, but the rest was just kind of blah. Not as showy as the English section.
On our way out I spotted these lavender lilacs and had to go smell them. I love lilacs! They remind me of home. My dream yard contains a lot of these. As we were walking through the garden, I listed off all the flowers, plants, and trees that will be in our yard -- lilacs, hydrangeas, dogwoods, crabapples, tulips, bluebells, jasmine, etc.-- we're gonna need a big yard.
On our way out of the park we walked around the Harlem Meer. There were a few ducks swimming in the water, and it was fun to watch them. We love ducks.
There were quite a few people fishing in the meer. I didn't realize that this was a thing, and my first thought was "Is this allowed?" followed by "Is there anything in there to catch?" and "What do they do with the fish they do catch?" A nearby sign said that there are fish in the meer, and fishing is allowed, but strictly on a catch and release basis. Fishing in Central Park, who knew? I kind of want to buy a fishing pole and go do some fishing now. I haven't been fishing for a very long time.
I'm so glad that we finally made it to the Conservatory Garden in the spring. It was definitely worth a visit.
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