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A sure sign spring has sprung in Philadelphia is the blossoming of thousands of cultivated cherry trees across the city, throughout parks, in gardens, down streets and by waterways.
The magnificent blooms add explosions of pink, white and purple to already-picturesque skyline vistas, trail views and shimmering riverfronts.
Come spring, residents and visitors alike enjoy peaceful ohanami (Japanese flower-viewing picnics) and view some of the most stunning sakura (the Japanese term for flowering cherry trees) in the nation.
But don’t take our word for it. Publications like Lonely Planet, Time Out, Afar and Country Living rank Philadelphia among the best places in the nation to enjoy the cherry blossom bloom in 2024.
Predicted Peak Bloom Dates for 2024
At the end of February, the National Park Service issued its blooming predictions for the National Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington, DC. According to Vince Marrocco, Director of Horticulture at Chestnut Hill’s Morris Arboretum & Gardens, Philadelphia’s cherry trees typically bloom a week to 10 days after Washington’s and based on the NPS forecast, cherry blooms in Philly should peak between March 30 and April 2, 2024. “With all the warm weather we’ve had and are predicted to have, that’s super early,” states Marrocco.
So for how long are the blossoms viewable? Generally, cherry trees begin to blossom several days before predicted peak bloom dates. Then the pink and white flowers can remain on the trees for as little as four to five days to as long as two weeks after bloom, depending on temperature, wind and rain.
There are a slew of attractions, sites, parks, green spaces, botanic gardens and arboreta (and even a month-long festival) in the Philly region that offer premier spots for viewing the world-class, Instagram-ready cherry tree blooms.
Our friends at the Japan America Society of Greater Philadelphia offer this convenient Cherry Blossom Viewing Map, hand-painted by Japanese artist Hiro Sakaguchi, of cherry tree groves across the city.
But below we’ve called out some of the best places for you to check out the blossoms and blooms in Philadelphia and the Countryside for 2024.
Hidden in a clearing deep in West Fairmount Park surrounded by cherry blossom trees, the Shofuso Japanese Cultural Center is a go-to spot for taking in the gorgeous pink blooms. The serene site — a post-World War II gift of peace to America from the Emperor of Japan — is modeled after a traditional circa-1600s Japanese temple and boasts stunning grounds, exquisite gardens, a tiered waterfall and a Zen-finding koi pond underneath the center’s signature decades-old weeping cherry tree. Shofuso opens for the season Wednesday, March 20, 2024, and timed tickets are required to tour the interior. Parkgoers can also catch a glimpse of the grounds from Horticultural Drive.
Where: Shofuso Japanese Cultural Center, Lansdowne & Horticultural drives
Just behind Fairmount Park’s Memorial Hall — a National Historic Landmark constructed for the 1876 Centennial which houses the Please Touch Museum — visitors find a grove of Cherry Allée trees (donated by The Japan America Society of Greater Philadelphia in 2003) which stretch throughout the naturally green area along Lansdowne Drive. A short walk to the northwest, more cherry tree blooms astound each year around the Fairmount Park Horticulture Center and Centennial Arboretum, site of the annual Subaru Cherry Blossom Festival. For one more stunning spot in this area, safely cross Belmont Avenue and find the Stone Gazebo for a truly spectacular frame (see above).
Where: Please Touch Museum, 4231 Avenue of the Republic
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Fairmount Park Horticulture Center, 100 N. Horticultural Drive
Centennial Arboretum, Montgomery Drive
Stone Gazebo, Avenue of the Republic
The 4.3-mile Martin Luther King Drive Trail that parallels Martin Luther King Jr. Drive is one of the most scenic in West Fairmount Park, hugging the west side of the Schuylkill River. During cherry blossom season, the 2-mile stretch from Montgomery Drive to the Falls Bridge offers the best parkside views of the trail’s scores of pink and white blossoms. If you prefer motorized transport, the blooming trees also make a lovely site from the comfort of your car along the road. Pro tip: Head a little south of Montgomery Drive to see more blooms at Schuylkill Beach.
Where: Martin Luther King Jr. Drive from Montgomery Drive to the Falls Bridge
Strolling north along the Schuylkill River Trail, the views along windy Kelly Drive are filled with blooming cherry blossoms across the grassy berms of the Schuylkill River’s east bank. Enjoy a hike, run or bike ride up the trail, or grab a blanket and picnic under the pink flowering trees, 500 in total donated to the city by Japanese residents of Philadelphia in 1933. Start where the Girard Bridge passes over Kelly Drive and continue north along the trail to the Playing Angels statues (by the Fountain Green Drive entrance of East Fairmount Park) for the springtime spectacle.
Where: Kelly Drive at Girard Bridge
Where better to view both budding cherry trees and the gorgeous Philly skyline than from than what the Fairmount Park Commission calls, “Philadelphia’s most scenic overlook”? Just a half-mile or so north (and uphill) from Shofuso Japanese Cultural Center (see above) is sprawling Belmont Plateau, which rises 243 feet over the Schuylkill River. The clearing of green lawn and athletic fields along Belmont Mansion Drive in Fairmount Park offers stellar views of blooming cherry blossoms and the Philadelphia skyline from 4 miles northwest of Center City. Pack a picnic, enjoy the scenery and call it a day well spent.
Where: Belmont Plateau, 1800 Belmont Mansion Drive
There are few more iconic locales in the city than the Philadelphia Museum of Art. And while its Rocky Steps are the most famous spot on its exterior grounds, the museum’s extensive backyard is one of the most beautiful spots in Philly. The grassy lawn between the rear of the museum and Fairmount Water Works features a number of walking paths, statues and clusters of cherry trees that pop their colors each spring. Arrays of blooming cherry blossoms can be found near the Azalea Garden, Fountain of Sea Horses statue and along the west side of the museum.
Where: Azalea Garden
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Fountain of the Sea Horses
West side of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2600 Benjamin Franklin Parkway
Fairmount Park isn’t the only spot in Philly to see cherry trees blooming. Across town, find even more of the pink and white blossoms along the Delaware River. Whether walking, jogging or biking along the Delaware River Trail or driving down Columbus Boulevard, budding cherry trees are visible along numerous center strips of the road near the Delaware waterfront. Don’t miss the buds off Chestnut Street at Penn’s Landing, or the view near Race Street and Columbus Boulevard where the Benjamin Franklin Bridge peeks out amidst the blooms looking east.
Where: North Christopher Columbus Boulevard near Race Street
Just across the Schuylkill River from Center City in West Philadelphia, Drexel Park is a green lawn space, recreational facility and community hub built over a former University City industrial site, a favorite hangout for students and staff at Drexel University, residents of Powelton Village and visitors passing through nearby 30th Street Station. But the park’s highlight is the blossoming of its cherry trees whose flowers dot the winding paths each spring seen against a backdrop of stunning views of the Philly skyline over the Amtrak railyard.
Where: Drexel Park, 3100 Powelton Avenue
The beautiful Morris Arboretum & Gardens of the University of Pennsylvania, at the tippy-top of Northwest Philadelphia, is home to over 200 cherry trees representing 76 different species and varieties. Usher in the season by admiring the pink blooms as its cherry blossoms (along with spike winterhazel and katsura-tree blooms) burst forth in full glory. Then check out all the other cool spring things at this leafy Chestnut Hill treasure. Advance tickets required.
Where: Morris Arboretum & Gardens, 100 E. Northwestern Avenue
Residents of and visitors to Philadelphia can admire the beauty of the trees and flora in historic and gorgeous Rittenhouse Square park any time of year. But walking through or by the Center City common in April is a special site for the eyes as the square’s stunning pink and white cherry tree blossoms fill the view. Pro tip: Grab yourself a coffee and keep the cherry peeping going with a stroll over to see even more blooming trees along nearby Delancey Street by The Rosenbach museum and library.
Where: Rittenhouse Square, 18th and Walnut Streets
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The Rosenbach, 2008-2010 Delancey Street
Possibly the most historic of William Penn’s five original public squares in Philadelphia, Washington Square, part of Independence National Historical Park, lies catty-corner to Independence Hall and features the Tomb of the Unknown Revolutionary War Soldier. It’s also one of the city’s lower-key popular al fresco hangout spots, thanks in part to a number of cherry trees which come to life with pink and white in spring. The common’s quiet and stately surrounding Washington Square West neighborhood is also known for its bright pink cherry blossom trees, down quaint alleys like Manning, Panama and Jessup streets.
Where: Washington Square, 210 W. Washington Square
At the heart of Spruce Hill neighborhood, the nine-acre Clark Park in West Philadelphia dates back to the late 1800s. The community hub bustles with activity at its playgrounds, athletic courts, festivals, flea markets, theatrical performances, concerts, LARPer games and a year-round farmers market. Since 1998, the Japan America Society of Greater Philadelphia (JASGP) has worked with the community to plant nearly 1,000 cherry trees across the city, including a dozen in Clark Park. More JASGP-assisted plantings can be seen at Morris Park in upper West Philadelphia and at Franklin Square in Center City.
Where: Clark Park, 4300-4398 Baltimore Avenue
At over a thousand acres, Longwood Gardens is Philly’s largest botanical garden and one of the world’s premier horticultural displays. The Pierre du Pont-founded destination, selected as No. 1 on Fodor’s list of Best Botanical Gardens Across the United States, is home to beautiful blooms of all sorts (featuring 10,000 plant and tree varieties across its grounds), including a number of blossoming cherry trees such as the rare Okame Cherry and Weeping Higan Cherry which awaken seemingly before your eyes. Advance tickets required.
Where: Longwood Gardens, 1001 Longwood Road, Kennett Square
Located in the sliver of extreme southeast Bucks County between Northeast Philly and the Delaware River, the Bensalem Township community of Andalusia is home to Andalusia Historic House, Gardens & Arboretum, an early 1800s Greek Revival mansion on a 50-acre estate surrounded by native woodlands, formal gardens and nearly two-dozen cherry trees blooming into technicolor each spring. Explore the grounds and see the flowering trees with a self-guided tour. Advance tickets required.
Where: Andalusia Historic House, Gardens & Arboretum, 1237 State Road, Andalusia
In 1926, Japan gifted the city 1,600 cherry trees to be planted in West Fairmount Park to celebrate America’s Sesquicentennial. Then in 1933, local Japanese residents donated 500 more placed along Kelly Drive. And between 1998 and 2007, the Japan American Society of Greater Philadelphia planted 1,000 by the Schuylkill River, down Kelly and Martin Luther King Jr. drives, near the Philadelphia Museum of Art, around Fairmount Park Horticulture Center, at Morris Arboretum and more. The Shofuso Japanese Cultural Center itself was a post-World War II gift from the Emperor of Japan.
The Visit Philly Overnight Package — booked more than 190,000 times since 2001 — comes with free hotel parking (worth up to $100 in Center City Philadelphia), overnight hotel accommodations and choose-your-own-adventure perks.