In December 2020, the Gramercy Park Block Association reported that more than 22,000 bulbs had been planted for the coming spring. During a year of emergency support and disrupted routines, the work offered a longer horizon: flowers that would appear after winter.
The letter described the Block Association providing administrative services under the direct supervision of the Park Trustees. Bulb planting sat alongside seasonal cleanup, tree care and recovery from Tropical Storm Isaias. Caretaker Amando Flores and project manager Kathleen Scupp were central to the planning and tending of the landscape.
April · The planting comes into view
The April 15, 2021 follow-up reported those bulbs blooming in the Park and the surrounding tree gardens. Its illustrated guide located daffodils in the 41 perimeter gardens, the northwest and southeast quadrants, and the Gramercy Park North planters.
That spring, tulips appeared at the south gate, in the One Lexington Avenue tree gardens and in the northwest urn. The photographs also showed bluebells, snowdrops, Japanese kerria, the weeping cherry at the north gate and magnolias inside the Park.
The seasonal work continued. In May, the newsletter reported begonias arriving for the 41 tree gardens.
Another season to notice
The spring planting brought daffodils and tulips to gardens in and around the Park. In Amando Flores’s flower photographs, you can take a closer look at the flowers he tends.



Sources
Adapted from the Block Association’s distributed newsletters of December 15, 2020, April 15, 2021 and May 14, 2021.
