Cherry blossoms flower early at botanical gardens

Ti Gong

Cherry blossoms have started to bloom in the city despite the chill, the earliest in recent years.

A few cherry blossoms have blossomed at Shanghai Botanical Garden and Chenshan Botanical Garden.

These include kawazu-zakura cherry blossoms, which usually bloom in Shanghai in late February and early March.

Kawazu-zakura trees are the most common type in Shanghai and are usually among the first to bloom. The cherry features large petals and a variety of colors, such as red, white and pink.

"It is rare to see the blooming of cherry blossoms so early in Shanghai," said Yu Lixia, a senior engineer at Chenshan Botanical Garden.

In fact, Yu said, a few of them had even bloomed before the Spring Festival.

Yu said early and mid-January rain and warm temperatures had "woken up" the cherry blossoms.

Ti Gong

Early-blooming cherry types tend to flower when the temperature rises above 5 degrees Celsius and last for around 10 days.

"If this weather continues, most cherry blossoms will flower one or two weeks earlier," Yu said.

However, the fluctuating weather and temperature drop during the Spring Festival had frozen the buds of some cherry blossom trees.

Zhu Jijun, a senior engineer at Shanghai Botanical Garden, said several waves of temperature drop during the Spring Festival had delayed the flowering of big scale cherry blossoms.

Therefore, the best time to appreciate kawazu-zakura in Chenshan is typically early March.

The Chenshan Botanical Garden includes a flower boulevard that creates a dreamy pink tunnel. It is the most beautiful kawazu-zakura cherry blossom boulevard.

Ti Gong

If you go

Shanghai Botanical Garden 上海植物园

Opening hours: 6am-5pm

Address: 1111 Longwu Road, Xuhui District （上海市徐汇区龙吴路1111号）

Admission: Free

Shanghai Chenshan Botanical Garden 上海辰山植物园

Opening hours: 8am-5pm

Address: 3888 Chenhua Highway, Songjiang District （上海市松江区辰花公路3888号）

Admission: 60 yuan