Flower Power — Horticulture lovers should not miss Fifth Avenue’s next “Blooms” floral installation, which will unveil a rose never before seen in public.
The “Fifth Avenue Rose” produces rich purple magenta blossoms with a strong scent of cinnamon, clove and spice. It was introduced by Star Roses and Plants, a wholesale plant nursery in West Grove, Pa., then bred by the House of Meilland in France, which sent the seedlings to New Jersey to a nursery where the Holiday Collective nurtured them for Blooms. The event is being staged by the Fifth Avenue Association, a business improvement district.
Blooms starts June 1, will continue for a month, and will help mark this year’s 200th anniversary of Fifth Avenue, originally just a dirt path that became a road. For the event, 16 planters and two grand floral arches with 400 rose plants totaling an estimated 2,500 to 4,000 individual stems will be installed on Fifth Avenue from 51st to 58th Streets. The Fifth Avenue Rose will be the “star” of each planter, and complemented by other accent flowers.
“Fifth Avenue is transformed every season and this year’s Blooms is a celebration of the avenue like never before with a brand new rose that will brighten the blocks and beautify the boulevard,” said Edward F. Pincar Jr., president of the Fifth Avenue Association. “As the weather warms so everyone, whether you live here or visiting for the first time, can enjoy all that Fifth Avenue offers. With the debut of the flower, we’re not only honoring the avenue’s historic legacy, we’re also looking to a promising and exciting future.”
That future entails a dramatic redesign of Fifth Avenue involving widening the sidewalks, reducing traffic lanes, adding trees, planters, benches, improved lighting and infrastructure to reduce the impact of storms, and possibly adding more vehicle-free weekends. The idea is to make it easier and more inviting for shoppers to walk up and down the avenue, making it a bit more like the Champs-Élysées in Paris. Mayor Eric Adams announced Wednesday a $400 million budget for the project. Construction should begin in early 2028.