Wickham Park in Manchester to host annual tree tour this weekend

MANCHESTER, CT (WFSB) - You know the saying April showers bring May flowers. The rain over the weekend did just that!

Its perfect timing for Wickham Park in Manchester. They’re having their annual tree tour this weekend.

If you’re looking for some beautiful spring blossoms, Wickham Park is a great place to come and see.

They have some really unique trees, like this 1400 year old tree that was taken from a cutting from a village in Japan.

Mom of four, Erin McNamara took her kids to see the blooms.

“It’s beautiful to see all the buds blooming up in the sensory garden the smells are super fragrant,” Erin said. “I like the design of the garden whoever designed it did a really good job.”

It’s a fun family trip that’s also educational.

“I’ve noticed that there are some new plaques on some of the trees which is nice because we are a homeschool family so we like to learn as we go,” Erin said. “We’ve got some rose bushes, some hydrangeas, all kinds of beautiful flowering plants that will be popping up through the season.”

Shawn Porter is the director at Wickham Park. Their hour-long annual tree tour this weekend  will showcase many of their 50 varieties of trees.

“There’s always something blooming we just got past cherry blossom, but now we have dog woods and crab apples blooming all of the Japanese maples are getting really beautiful and red so there’s always something cool to see here,” Porter said.

He said the recent rain has helped in some ways.

“We will plant 300 or 400 plants a year so in a drought it’s really tough because you have to keep up on watering when we have some rain. It’s a blessing and a curse obviously it helps us keep all our new plantings watered but people don’t come to the park so we need the rain but we’ll keep it on weekdays,” said Porter.

The tour starts at 10 a.m. this Saturday and is free with car admission to the park.

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