Historic Garden Week in Virginia 2016 Biggest Tour of the Year

Flower Arrangement Richmond Tour 

If you love Spring as I do, then you won't want to miss the biggest tour of the year, Historic Garden Week in Virginia. Beginning April 23 select communities throughout the state host home and garden tours sponsored by local Garden Clubs. Each year I get my grubby gardening gloves on the 250 page guidebook that explains in detail every tour site. You can pick up a catalog in local specialty shops and libraries or you can read the guidebook online. Proceeds from the tours help preserve historic gardens in Virginia.

Beautiful Flowers during prior Tour

Each year I blog about my favorite tour sites listed in the catalog. The following communities made my list mainly because of their emphasis on gardens. Some localities focus more on home interiors. Last year we visited Richmond and it was outstanding and over the years we have visited Ashland, Charlottesville, Lexington, Staunton, and Richmond (twice).

Note: Some tour tickets can be purchased in advance for a $5.00 discount.

Ashland Tour 2012

4/23, Saturday, 10-5, $35.00 - Staunton is pulling out all the stops with 8 properties open on tour day. They also have guest speakers and performances throughout the day. When we toured Staunton several years ago I was totally blown away by the floral arrangements created by the Augusta Garden Club. On tour this year are expansive gardens with over 1,000 Daffodils and Tulips, Azalea, Rhododendron, Peony, and Spring Shrubs. Featured are select Roses from the Garden Club of Virginia's Rose Collection. The Charles Gillette designed garden at the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library and Museum is included on the tour. While you are in town, check out the ongoing efforts to replant Dogwood trees in the sprawling Gypsy Hill Park.

This Spring on Forsythia Hill in my garden.

4/23, Sat, 12-5, $45.00 - Winchester-Clarke features native plant and organic food production gardens featuring herbs and vegetables. Specialty gardens are also highlighted on this tour; Dahlia, Rose, more than 15,000 Daffodils, 10,000 Tulips, and 15,000 Grape Hyacinths. Clay Hill will be on the tour and has been featured in several notable publications and includes an Orchid conservatory, Italianate boxwood parterre garden, and perennial & vegetable gardens planted within stone walls built by Hessian soldiers. Don't miss the Black Walnut tree said to be one of the largest in Virginia. If you have time, visit our State Arboretum of Virginia.

Ashland Tour 2012

4/26, Tuesday, 10-5, $25.00 - Petersburg is steeped in history and is a fascinating place to visit even without Historic Gardening Week to lure you in. Centre Hill Mansion has been featured in several movies and is a restoration project of the Garden Club of Virginia. Several other amazing historic homes are featured on the tour as is a billiard room, wine cellar, carriage house, potting shed, barn, gazebo, and guest house. Art, history, and antiques abound along with terraced gardens, flowering trees, walking trails, and native plants. The Marie Bowen Garden is a 30 year restoration project taken on by the Raleigh Parish Garden Club, named after one member who spent countless hours propagating native plants for an overgrown expansive ravine located within the garden. You may want to make time for the first Bank Museum in Virginia, Farmers Bank, one of the few in the USA,

Monticello during Garden Week 2014

4/28, Thurs, 10-5, $40.00 - Norfolk features homes from the early 1900's. Well known Virginia architect, John K. Peebles designed one home that is featured. Interior styles vary from Italian to Asian. Gardens include a pesticide free garden with herbs and vegetables and a sustainable garden featuring many edible / pollinator friendly plants. The eight acre Weyanoke Bird and Wildflower Sanctuary is also on the tour. For more than 20 years, the St. Andrews Episcopal Church has hosted a Flower Festival and will showcase arrangements during the tour. If you have time, you might want to make a trip over to the Chrysler Museum of Art or the Moses Myers House (one of the many Garden Club of Virginia's renovated gardens).

Richmond Tour 2013

4/29, Fri, 10-4, $40.00 - Middle Peninsula will open 6 homes; a mix of historic and contemporary and new construction. A Virginia planters home from the 1840's, a Georgian style home that has discovered two cannon balls on the property, and one home from 1763 that has a slave cabin and log cabin on the property. One newer home has a waterfront view with gardens, pool and outdoor kitchen. The "Old Customs House" referred to as "Sandwich" is on the tour and is named after the Earl of Sandwich who of course invented the sandwich! You won't want to miss the home with custom crafted interior wood detailing located on the salt marsh and creek. Stroll winding woodland paths covered in over 15,000 bulbs through a bog garden surrounded by native plants and trees.

Prior Garden Week in Richmond 2015

4/30, Sat, 10-5, $35.00 - Blackstone & Nottoway County features homes ranging in age from 1800 - 1900 plus one new contemporary home. Garden details encompass a herb garden, Asian garden, Koi pond, cottage garden, heirloom plants, mature specimen trees, and over 100 Hostas. The Virginia Bluebird Society will host a garden presentation. One home features 500 martini glasses and a collection of Buddhist and Hindu statues. In town there is a carriage museum and The Nottoway County Courthouse has been described as one of the most beautiful of its style in Virginia. Trend is hosting a waffle tasting from 9 - 11 am.

Richmond headquarters for Garden Club of Virginia

4/30, Sat, 10-5, $30.00 - Lexington features 6 properties, many tied to the production of grapes. Rockbridge Vineyard is on the tour as is a nearby home with natural wood detailing, a shaded woodland garden, and a fruit and vegetable garden. One home that has been modified over the years since 1790, had Union forces camped on the farm prior to Hunter's raid on Lexington and now has "rocking chairs on the front porch over looking the countryside and grape vines". Another home on the tour features natural gardens with birdhouses, hand-hewn fencing, and an amphitheater near the creek. Art is a feature in several homes on this tour. A sweet Herbery is filled with hundreds of bulbs, spring ephemerals, herbs, and a greenhouse. Also tour a rustic treehouse and log-cabin smokehouse, barn, pool and pool house surrounded by garden walking trails leading to the creek.

Garden Week in Richmond 2015

This is just a small taste of beautiful homes and gardens in Virginia. I hope you will pick a location and explore. I'm still on the fence where to go this year but at least my list has been narrowed down!

-Rebecca

Historic Garden Week in Virginia 2014

Underground Monticello in the service area looking out.

Historic Garden Week in Virginia began with days of torrential rain but ended with ideal tour weather. If you are a hardcore gardener like me, a little rain never keeps you away from attending events during this special week.

As part of garden week, the University of Virginia invites visitors to the gardens surrounding the President's house on Carr's Hill and the Academical Village. This year a friend took me to a play for my birthday and prior to the event walked over to Carr's Hill. We laughed as we passed by the large kitchen window and caught President Teresa Sullivan washing dishes dressed in her standard issue business attire. I didn't have my camera at the time but thought that would be such a great shot. Who knew the President of UVA washed dishes! She didn't even notice us, as there are so many passerbyers during Garden Week. A little while later we saw her at the play we were attending which explained why she was not "dressed down" whilst scrubbing dishes at the kitchen sink.

Monticello when the rain let up, Tulips, Tulips, Tulips!

Next on my hit list was to attend a lecture and tour of the Restoring Monticello's Kitchen Road, a project partly funded by the Garden Club of Virginia. It was pouring rain to the point that my eyeglasses fogged up and water was dripping down the top of my nose. I was drenched but I'll jump at any opportunity to be on the grounds at Monticello, regardless of such trivial things as looking and feeling like a wet rat. The architectural historian, Gardiner Hallock, was a good sport to take this group of hardcore gardeners on this trek.

Beautiful statue and purple Tulip at Rosalie.

The indoor lecture was well attended and while outside there were breaks in the rain to allow me to snap a few photos. The ongoing restoration will include extending Mulberry Road back down toward the Barn, rebuilding a Slave House, restoring the Weavers House, and reconnecting the original pathway between the service areas and the formal house. If you have followed my blog about the Levy Lions, the area that is being restored is in the vicinity of where the Lions once stood. Of course I took the opportunity to do a little side research while I was out and about.

Beautiful urns adorn the entryway.

Yesterday we headed out early to tour Lexington where 3 homes and 7 gardens were open for visitors. It was a glorious day with temperatures moderate in the 70's. Skies were blue and gardens were bursting with new Spring growth. All gardens were immaculate.

A secret side pathway from the back garden to the front.

There were no rough edges on these pristine gardens. Even wooded, hidden pockets of secret spots and work areas were tidy and obviously well tended. There were historically important gardens on the tour created by well known Garden Master, Charles Gillette. Blooming in the various gardens were beautiful Iris, purple Tulips, Azalea, Hosta, Dogwood, Solomon Seal, pink Trillium, and sweet scented Lilac in various colors. On Stonewall Street we found a huge Climbing Hydrangea that must be simply beautiful when in full bloom. The masses of Peony at Castle Hill marching up the pond hillside were ready to pop.

Entryway into the Charles Gillette Marshall St garden.

It was impressive to see homeowners interested in preservation of two historic Charles Gillette gardens. We moved from our historic family home and yard that I toiled in for 20 years and I have great respect for any homeowner that has appreciation for the past. At Castle Hill we loved the preserved boxwood maze and strolling the estate grounds. The carefully scripted self guides along the way were a nice addition.

A fun moment during the tour.

We really enjoy tours where you can walk from garden to garden instead of driving. Lexington fit the bill, we walked between all gardens for the exception of one, which was Ok because we stumbled upon an old historic greenhouse along the way where we purchased plants.

Our garden club hosts were cheerful and helpful - even the snacks and punch were delicious and we had a few laughs along the way.

Flowers for fresh arrangements made by club members.

After checking out a few Thrift Stores and making some detours, we were back at dusk, exhausted but happy to have explored beautiful Lexington and the homes of fellow gardeners. Thank you Blue Ridge Garden Club for a lovely event!

-Rebecca

Virginia Historic Garden Week is nearly HERE

Maymont in Richmond in the Spring

Virginia Historic Garden Week is fast approaching and occurs April 26 - May 3, 2014.

Conveniently, the Garden Club of Virginia provides a 240 page booklet complete with graphic details about the tour featuring such Spring beauties as flowering Dogwood, Hydrangea, Tulips, and Daffodils. Look for the booklet at your local library or read details online. The tour features homes and gardens, some communities lean more toward gardens, some more to homes.

Historic home on tour in 2012, Ashland, Virginia

Since my relocation to Charlottesville, Virginia in 2009 I have not missed the annual tour and each year scour the booklet with several cups of tea (initially the book was smaller and one cup would suffice) for the perfect location to tour and blog about. I have yet to be disappointed. Each community offers a little something different than the other. I loved the smaller community tours in Staunton and Ashland and was blown away by the tour last year in Richmond.

Arrangement on Ashland Tour, 2012

This year, because of the great number of gardens featured, we have decided to go to Lexington.
Saturday, May 3: The Lexington tour is located within Monroe Park, a subdivision that began construction in the 1920s. This tour features 7 homes and/or gardens.

There are a few communities that have fantastic descriptions but given we limit our driving distance to 2 hours, they are out of reach.

Lynchburg, Richmond, Roanoke, and Petersburg sound really good but were not chosen for various reasons.

Old City Cemetery, Lynchburg, Virginia

Tuesday, April 29: I pass through Lynchburg often and check in on the Anne Spencer's Poet Garden and the Old City Cemetery Gardens so I ruled that out. If you have not been, I highly recommend this tour or go to the Rose Festival May 9th at the Old City Cemetery to choose from hundreds of roses.

Patio on tour in Ashland, Virginia 2012

Tuesday, April 29: If you love history, go to Petersburg. It's farther to drive than Lexington and on the same day so we ruled it out. The garden booklet is dripping with references such as, "symbol of the grandeur that characterized the aristocracy of Virginia in the 19th century".

Home on 2013 Tour, Richmond, Virginia

Wed - Fri, April 30 - May 2: Richmond features three different areas of the city on different days. It's never easy for me to decided which area to pick. If you are fortunate to live in Richmond, you can go to all three! Also don't miss the headquarters located at the Kent-Valentine house, it's amazing!

The Star City of the South, Roanoke, Virginia

Saturday, May 3: Roanoke often offers interesting tours, last year the home on top of Mill Mountain (where the Star is perched) was on the tour. This year the gardens only of the Avenham home of Mary Anne and David Wine are open. The home used to be owned by the Roanoke Council of Garden Clubs and was built in 1911. It is a well known Roanoke landmark and the Wine's have worked on their property since their acquisition in 2003. I rented space in Pulaski, Virginia for my coffee shop, MimiAnne's, from David Wine and the greatest of care always goes into their preservation efforts changing what once was discarded into something magnificent. I would expect the gardens to be beautiful.

I have to shut my eyes and not even dare read Williamsburg, Virginia Beach, Fairfax, Eastern Shore... all too far to travel but I'm sure offering outstanding tours.

Walking trail, at the foothill of Monticello

In Charlottesville:

Monday, April 28th: Free lecture and tour, 2 pm, Kitchen Road Restoration at Monticello (RESERVATIONS REQUIRED - website refers to 10 am but trust me, it's at 2 pm).

Tuesday April 29th: Free lecture, "Expanding Jefferson's Vision, Master Plan for the University of Virginia" will be held at the Albert and Shirley Small Collection Library on campus at 2 pm. I adore this amazing library which by the way, also hosts a wonderful summer lecture series.

If you have not toured the Academical Village Pavilion Gardens near the Rotunda on campus, add that to your list! The gardens are magical.

So much to see and so little time - 8 days, 250 gardens, 2,000 floral arrangements - WOW. 

Where ever you decide to go, you are sure to find beauty and surprises. Proceeds benefit historic garden preservation in Virginia and the list of success stories is quite a lengthy one! Currently nearly 50 gardens in the state are undergoing preservation projects.

-Rebecca