Virginia’s diverse natural beauty presents itself in many forms, and since 1929, the Garden Club of Virginia has centered on the flora of the commonwealth.
Throughout the state, preparations for the 91st annual Historic Garden Week have been building up to April 20-27. Tours in eastern Virginia include properties ranging from historic homes in Colonial Williamsburg to river homes in Tappahannock.
The week is called “the biggest open house in the United States,” said Durfee Betts, president of the Garden Club of Gloucester and Mathews. “Virginia is the only state that does a statewide garden tour.”
The weeklong celebration of all things green and garden-related attracts visitors from the United States and other countries across the globe. As “the signature event of the Garden Club of Virginia,” according to Betts, Historic Garden Week combines Virginia’s rich historical background alongside the timeless presence of thriving plant life.
Forty-eight garden clubs are affiliated with the Garden Club of Virginia, and each presents its own tour experience during the week each year. Tickets are on sale now.
Historic Garden Week has generated millions of dollars in revenue for the state over the years, said Leslie Coe, the Williamsburg Garden Club’s chair for this year’s tour. According to an economic impact study including survey data from within the last five years, the annual economic impact of the week in Virginia is estimated to be $12.5 million. “The cumulative economic impact over the last 50 years is an impressive $518 million,” the study states.
This year, the Williamsburg Garden Club’s tours will be held for one day only: April 23 from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. “The day is about community, friends and flowers,” Coe said.
The tour will welcome guests into the Walnut Hills neighborhood and Colonial Williamsburg. Historic houses from the 1960s, including the Darling home, will be showcased alongside their exterior gardens. Flower arrangements by garden club members and other participants will be indoors for visitors to admire.
Four houses featured on Williamsburg’s tour this year have not been open before, creating a “completely new tour” experience for attendees, Coe said.
“We are incredibly fortunate that Colonial Williamsburg is our backyard,” Coe said.
The Garden Club of Gloucester and Mathews, meanwhile, will be holding tours over two days, as opposed to their normal single-day schedule in the past. Admission for each day requires its own ticket.
From 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on April 20, three homes on the Ware River — the Mazzocco Home, River Promise and Paget — will be open to guests, along with the Fine Arts Museum of Gloucester. On April 21, guests can visit the Gardens of Goshen, described by Betts as “a spectacular, enormous property” that includes world-class sculptures.
“People come from all over the country, and also come (from) internationally to see not only the beautiful homes, properties and gardens,” Betts said, “but what really makes Garden Week special are the flower arrangements that are created in each home by the Garden Club members, and they’re pretty extraordinary.
“In the gardening world, it’s a very big deal.”
The Garden Club of the Middle Peninsula will host its house and garden tour on April 26 in Essex County and Tappahannock. “A scenic drive along Route 17” will bring visitors to five properties that “represent four centuries of architecture, rich history, pastoral landscapes, gardens and river views,” said Cynthia Carter, a club member.
“Visitors are also in for a treat as they view spectacular floral arrangements created by club members who source a significant portion of the flowers and greenery from home gardens,” Carter said.
In Essex County, the tour includes Mountcastle House, a modern farmhouse that sits above the Rappahannock River, and historic Wheatland, a plantation home built in 1848. “Wheatland’s steamboat wharf, originally constructed in the 1890s to handle river traffic and rebuilt after a fire, is the only one still in existence in the Chesapeake Bay watershed,” Carter said.
In Tappahannock, the properties on tour are Thornbury, a two-story Greek-revival home on the Rappahannock River; Little Egypt, which dates to the 1750s; and the Essex Inn, a bed and breakfast in an 1850-era brick Georgian mansion.
At both Williamsburg and Gloucester’s events, shuttles will be present to take guests to tour locations. Before or after visiting Walnut Hills on the Williamsburg tour, visitors can visit two homes in Colonial Williamsburg and go on a guided walking tour of four Colonial Revival gardens.
The planning process for Historic Garden Week, also headed by the Garden Club of Virginia, begins well in advance before the annual events. “You have to take photographs of the homes with the spring flowers the year before,” Betts said, regarding her current planning for next year’s endeavor — Historic Garden Week 2025.
For ticket sales and more information on Historic Garden Week across Virginia, visit vagardenweek.org. Advance tickets for the Middle Peninsula tour may also be purchased by emailing middlepeninsula@vagardenweek.org.
Other tours in southeastern Virginia include:
• April 20: Suffolk, hosted by the Elizabeth River Garden Club, the Franklin Garden Club and the Nansemond River Garden Club.• April 24: Poquoson, hosted by the Hampton Roads Garden Club and the Huntington Garden Club.• April 24: Virginia Beach, hosted the Virginia Beach Garden Club and the Princess Anne Garden Club.• April 25: Norfolk, hosted by the Garden Club of Norfolk and Harborfront Garden Club.• April 27: Eastern Shore, hosted by the Garden Club of the Eastern Shore.
Anna Dorl, annadorl46@gmail.com
