Historic Garden Week In Virginia
Every spring in Virginia, we have Historic Garden Week, which is presented by the Garden Club of Virginia.
It’s like a giant open house!
It’s in late April and this year there were 128 different properties - private landscapes, public gardens and historic sites - on 28 different tours all over the state. Each tour has five or six houses on its’ lineup. Larger areas, like Richmond or Alexandria have tours on consecutive days. Sometimes it’s just the gardens that are open, and sometimes the downstairs of the home is also. In addition, 48 garden clubs throughout the state create more than 1000 floral arrangements to enhance the properties. It stretches from the Shenandoah Valley to the beaches in the Tidewater area and the Chesapeake Bay. Such a beautiful event!
The proceeds fund the preservation and restoration of Virginia’s Historic Public Gardens, research fellowships and garden club projects in conjunction with the Virginia State Parks.
It dates back to 1927 when the Garden Club of Virginia organized a flower show and raised $7000 to save trees planted by Thomas Jefferson on the lawn at Monticello.
You can go to the website and buy tickets to any of the tours ahead of time and there are volunteer docents that stand in the home and gardens, giving information and answering questions.
I have been fortunate to have been one of those five or six times.
Last week, I was a docent in a home that was once lived in by Supreme Court Justice Lewis F. Powell. It’s on a large hill overlooking the James River, has been renovated and is just stunning.
Here are my images from my afternoon at the tour.
