Fifth Avenue Blooms celebrates the corridor’s 200th anniversary with a custom rose variety and floral displays
Images courtesy of the Fifth Avenue Association
Fifth Avenue will soon bloom with thousands of vibrant roses, including a unique new variety created to celebrate the iconic retail corridor’s 200th anniversary. On June 11, the Fifth Avenue Association will kick off Fifth Avenue Blooms, a month-long floral makeover of the avenue between 51st and 58th Streets, running through July 6. The display will feature 16 planters with 400 rose plants, totaling roughly 2,500 to 4,000 individual stems, including the one-of-a-kind variety created specifically for the avenue’s birthday, all beautifying the streetscape and providing a perfect backdrop for photos.
Called the “Fifth Avenue Rose,” the new flower produces deep magenta-purple blossoms and releases a bold fragrance with notes of cinnamon, clove, and spice. Star Roses and Plants, a wholesale nursery in Pennsylvania, introduced the rose, and the House of Meilland in France bred it. The seedlings were then sent to a nursery in New Jersey, where the Holiday Collective nurtured them in preparation for Blooms, according to Women’s Wear Daily.
The unique roses will serve as the centerpiece of the display, featured in 16 planters and framed by two grand floral arches, with other vibrant roses acting as complementary accents.
Visitors can also enjoy free live music on weekends, along with a variety of promotions and experiences from the retailers, hotels, restaurants, and cultural institutions that call Fifth Avenue home, including Baccarat Hotel New York, Benoit, Canada Goose, Delvaux, Mikimoto, MoMA, The St. Regis New York, and many others.
As part of the celebration, Longchamp will open a special sidewalk cafe outside its flagship store at 645 Fifth Avenue, serving a curated selection of Parisian food and drinks that blend the brand’s French roots with New York’s vitality. The cafe aims to showcase what the future of dining on Fifth Avenue could look like, especially with the expanded sidewalks and pedestrian spaces under the city’s proposed redesign of the corridor.
First unveiled in December 2022, the ambitious project seeks to transform the vehicle-dominated retail corridor into a pedestrian-centric space by reducing the number of traffic lanes from five to three, nearly doubling sidewalk widths, shortening crosswalks, and planting over 200 trees. The redesign is the first major alteration to Fifth Avenue in its 200-year history.
Fifth Avenue Blooms was first launched in 2021 as a gift to New York City during its recovery from the pandemic. Since then, it has grown into a beloved annual tradition, drawing visitors from near and far to enjoy the festive floral displays while shopping or strolling along the iconic corridor.
“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,” Edward F. Pincar Jr., president of the Fifth Avenue Association, told WWD.
“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.”
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