Cherry blossoms under attack by branch-shaking social media influencers at Brooklyn Botanical Garden

OK, bloomer.

Hoards of insufferable social media influencers have been aggressively shaking the cherry blossom trees at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden to get the perfect shot — forcing security guards to shoo them away “40 or 50” times daily, The Post has learned.

Dozens of selfie snappers were spotted yanking branches so pink petals would flutter down like snow, while others pulled and twisted limbs to get Instagram-worthy footage of the flowers next to their faces, according to visitors and workers.

Some of the arbor abusers were even seen climbing the beloved trees — which have reached the peak of their yearly bloom in recent weeks — and pluck blossoms to put in their hair for photo ops.

“How big of a jerk-off do you have to be…you have to shake it and mess it up for a picture?”  botanical garden security guard Frank Picarello, 49, fumed to The Post.

When it’s busy, Picarello said he has to fend off petal pushers “ 40 to 50 times a day, easy.”

Obnoxious tree fondlers have been flocking to the garden since the trees started blooming six weeks ago, and often ignore his warnings, he said.

“You’d think it’s the children that would have a hard time not touching the trees, but it’s the adults.”

“No matter how many times you ask nicely, they still do it,” Picarello said. “I tend to tell people, ‘When you go to a museum you don’t touch the exhibits or try and shake the T-Rex. Why do that when you come here?”

He added, “This is a garden that’s for the community, for people to come in to see, not to destroy,” he said.

On recent visits to the garden, The Post witnessed more than a dozen people jostling the trees to trigger an on-camera petal showers — including six in a one-hour span Wednesday.

A Post reporter also captured a man on video shaking the same tree for multiple people to cause the blossoms to rain down.

Rob Gillies, a certified arborist for Keiling Tree Care in New Jersey, said manhandling the branches can spoil the dazzling views for others.

“If you’re doing it prematurely, you’re dislodging blossoms that may have been held for longer,” he said. “They’re only in bloom for a few weeks, and you’re shortening the time frame for which other people can see them.”

Visitors who bend branches could also break them, he said.

“If you’re doing it with smaller branches you risk breaking a limb and then you have to prune it  unnecessarily,”said Gillies. “It’s not great if you’ve got too many people manhandling trees and potentially causing damage.”

Nature-loving New Yorkers called the branch shakers selfish.

“It’s upsetting,” said artist Tina Cernero, who witnessed the mayhem at the botanical garden Sunday.

“There was one guy that really pissed me off. He was with his daughter pulling and bending a branch, almost  to a point it would break,” she said. “He was pulling the branch down so it would be next to her face for a photo.”

Cernero, who photographs images of plants and animals, said it made her cringe to see the trees bent and twisted.

“People were pulling and picking  flowers off trees and putting blossoms in their hair…It was for selfies,” she said.

“They think it’s the end of the season, so  it’s not a big deal,” she said. “But these are live living elements of life.”

She said the botanical garden officials should put up signs and warn people not touch trees at the entrance. It could also print warnings on tickets, she suggested.

“I hope they do something to prevent it next season,” she said.

Brooklyn Botanical Garden has posted warnings not to “touch any parts of our plants, pick flowers or other plant parts, or walk in plant beds” on its Instagram page.

Asked if visitors shaking trees was a problem, Elizabeth Reina-Longoria, the garden’s Director of Marketing and Communications, initially told The Post it wasn’t.

“No, we are not experiencing people shaking, pulling, or damaging trees or plants or otherwise not following the rules like this,” she said.

However, when footage of multiple branch shakers, and told how Picarello is forced to shoo away dozens people per day, she later replied that the problem was not widespread.

“We find that this is not a rampant issue—the vast majority of our visitors are respectful of our collections and policies, and our security team is quick to respond when needed,” she wrote in an email.

“If some are not aware in advance that handling flowers or branches is not permitted, they quickly comply when informed of the rules.”