Red Wing Park, home to more than 150 Yoshino cherry trees, gardens and woodland trails, will reopen Saturday after months of roadway improvements.
The park closed in October for construction. Upgrades include a widened entry, repaved lanes, improved parking and a counterclockwise loop on Sakura Lane that will enhance traffic circulation.
Construction paused and the park reopened briefly in early April for the cherry blossom season. A seven-day festival celebrating the flowers allowed visitors to stroll under blush-colored blooms and watch martial arts demonstrations.
The cherry trees were a gift from Virginia Beach’s sister city, Miyazaki, Japan. The cities established a relationship in 1992 and Miyazaki sent 100 trees in 2005 and an additional 55 in 2010.
Along with delicate buds each spring, the trees brought the millennia-old Japanese tradition of hanami, “flower-viewing,” to the park. Hundreds of visitors flocked to the park this year to see the flowers, posing for pictures in the storms of petals wafting from the trees.
Princess Anne County acquired the land, once known as Old City Poor Farm, in 1879. Red Wing Park became a public park in 1966.
Along with the cherry trees, the park boasts the Miyazaki Japanese Garden, Reba S. McClanan Fragrance Garden, Bee City USA Pollinator Garden, picnic shelters, pickleball and basketball courts, and playgrounds.
