This summer, visitors to Madison Square Park can experience over 2,000 custom-grown flowers blooming around park monuments and water features. These special plants are specifically curated for the park each winter and grown by a team of offsite experts. Most of these plants start off with specialty growers as small seedlings on Long Island or in New Jersey and are grown to a size that can endure conditions within the park. Our horticulture team carefully curates each planting design so that the plant heights, colors, and textures will thrive throughout the season while creating endless blooms that are perfect for people and wildlife. Plants arrive in late May and are planted with the tireless help of volunteers. 

Madison Square Park’s expert horticulturists are always looking for the hottest blooms of the season. Some of our favorite plants of the season include New Guinea Tropical Rose Impatiens (Impatiens × hybrida ‘Compact Tropical Rose’). These bright annuals have exciting yellow and green striped foliage, as well as bright, pink flowers- perfect for the sun and shade around the southern fountain. Another favorite is Angel Wings Senecio (Senecio candicans ‘Senaw’). This plant offers beautiful silver foliage with a velvet texture, brightening the plantings around the reflecting pool this season!

Near the Conkling Monument Verbena ‘Lanai Deep Purple’ is our top pick for pollinators. This beautiful annual makes an excellent drought-resistant ground cover and is a magnet for butterflies. In front of the Seward monument sits another pollinator favorite- Lantana. Lantana camara ‘Radiation’ has show-stopping red and orange flowers that thrive in full sun. These flowers have incredibly sweet nectar and a lemony fragrance that is beloved by pollinators.

Check back throughout the season to watch the plantings evolve and grow. The beauty of gardens is always ephemeral and ever-changing.