Virginia Historic Garden Week 2024

The Garden Club of Virginia (GCV) was founded in 1920. Their mission is to restore and preserve historic landscapes around Virginia. They also have a passion for sharing knowledge about gardening. They have been organizing and hosting the unique annual Historic Garden Week (HGW) for nearly a century. HGW is the largest statewide event of its kind and exists to celebrate and support Virginia’s gardens and landscapes.

Regional Garden Clubs of Virginia

North | South | East | West | Central

Historic Garden Tours in Northern Virginia

Tourists visiting the northern region have a multitude of destinations to choose from. Old Town Alexandria, Front Royal, Middleburg, Little Oak Spring, Warrenton, and Clarke County all offer beautiful gardens.

Old Town Alexandria exudes beauty while preserving its deep historical heritage. Alexandria, established in 1749, overlooks both the nation’s capital and the Potomac river. It was a significant seaport before the American Revolution, a base of operations for Union forces in the American Civil War and the location of a torpedo factory during World War II. Along the tree-lined lanes of the historic district of Old Town Alexandria, you’ll find private townhomes and quiet gardens on this leisurely walking tour. The tour ticket also grants entry to two Garden Club of Virginia restoration projects, George Washington’s Mount Vernon and Green Springs Garden.

Situated in the southern forested gap of the Short Hill mountain range, Hillsboro is on the National Register of Historic Places. The town dates to 1752 and is among the oldest in Loudoun County. Hillsboro is often used as a rest area for travelers on the Appalachian Trail, which connects Maine and Georgia. The Hillsboro Preservation Foundation started a Legacy Farm Marker program to commemorate local families who have preserved historic farms, vital farmland and open space. Visitors can take a walking tour of four historic homes and explore a major makeover of the town’s main thoroughfare including Hope’s Garden, a hub for community activities.  

Little Oak Springs, Middleburg © Georgiana Watt

Virginia Foxglove, Image by Kathryn Feldmann, Courtesy of the Garden Club of Virginia

In 1919, the neighborhood around the Great Falls & Old Dominion Railroad terminal on Chain Bridge Road christened the station McLean in honor of John R. McLean, the Washington Post publisher and one of the trolley’s pioneers. During Historic Garden Week, a walking tour of Ballantrae will take you around the 6.5-acre estate. The property features a 1923 Colonial Revival manor house and an 1843 farmhouse, now in use as a guesthouse. Beautifully manicured grounds include a sunken tennis court, a secret treehouse, a walled kitchen garden and spots for outdoor entertaining. The 95-acre Meadowlark Botanical Gardens in nearby Vienna include expansive decorative display gardens, a restored 18th-century farmhouse and more.

The Oak Spring ticket includes admission to Oak Spring only. The spectacular Oak Spring property was the residence of two of the finest American art collectors and philanthropists of the late 20th century, Paul Mellon (1907–1999) and Rachel “Bunny” Lambert Mellon (1910–2014). The formal greenhouse and Oak Spring Gallery, part of the main Mellon estate, are open on the tour. New York architect H. Page Cross created a complex of whitewashed stone buildings that serve as the primary residence. As a leading horticulturist with garden designs featured at The White House and in Versaille, this a not-to-be-missed opportunity to visit one of the world’s finest home gardens. Bunny Mellon’s walled garden features separate planned formal and casual zones and an abundance of her famed topiary. Paul Mellon’s Broodmare Barn is also open for Historic Garden Week guests. It was there he raised his most successful thoroughbreds, including Sea Hero, the 1993 Kentucky Derby winner. Not far away, the charming village of Middleburg makes a pleasant spot for lunch and shopping. 

Historic Garden Tours in Southern Virginia

This region includes Martinsville, Danville-Chatham, and Roanoke.

Henry County’s Martinsville is tucked away in the undulating foothills next to the Blue Ridge Mountains. Visitors can take a driving tour to both urban and rural estates, showcasing its rich tradition of industry, civic pride and architectural skill. The tour includes a range of home architectural styles, including traditional and modern, paired with gorgeous lawns and gardens. Martinsville, known as  “Bee City USA,” will showcase a brand-new, innovative program to assist pollinators on the trip.

Southern Virginia is a historically significant and gorgeously undulating region. The town of Chatham, founded in 1777, serves as the county capital and was once known as Competition. The Historic Garden Week 2024 tour includes three properties that have replicated, restored and repurposed their community’s rich past. A beautiful Chatham townhouse built in 1909 was fully updated for contemporary living. A once-active mill facility has been charmingly refurbished for events. Also on the tour is a recently built rural home thoughtfully constructed using repurposed wood from old Danville and nearby buildings. This preservation work created a beautiful new home that fits seamlessly into its surroundings.

Bee on Catmint, Image by Craig Davenport, Courtesy of the Garden Club of Virginia

Chatham - Motley Mill, Image Courtesy of the Garden Club of Virginia

Roanoke, also known as the Star City of the South, is Southwest Virginia’s booming transportation and commercial center. The charming Lakewood neighborhood is making its first appearance at Historic Garden Week in more than 40 years. It is home to private residences and gardens that are part of the spring tour. This community’s architectural styles and gardens are diverse. Each house, whether a conventional 1950s Colonial or an English Arts and Crafts home constructed in 1926, has been updated with contemporary features to appeal to modern families. Every home has an outdoor entertainment space and a pool. Even a large tree home designed for family time during the pandemic exists. The property displays a range of hardwoods and plants, including more than 200 boxwoods and a “Peter Rabbit” Garden.

Historic Garden Tours on the Eastern Shore of Virginia

Region East will have tours through Gloucester Mathews, Olde Towne Plymouth, Historic Berkeley, Shirley and Westover as well as Williamsburg, Hampton-Newport News, Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Middle Peninsula, and the Eastern Shore.

The Saturday Gloucester-Mathews tour includes access to three exclusive waterfront residences whose owners have created lovely gardens and amassed artwork from paintings to sculptures and other artifacts on their travels. These collections are so outstanding in their mere quantity that visitors will want to stay and enjoy their variety and excellence. The properties highlighted are the Ware Riverfront homes of River Promise (1987), Paget (1928), and Mazzocco (1990).

Northern Neck Property with Blue Hydrangeas, Image by Becky Latane Courtesy of The Garden Club of Virginia

Virginia Beach House, Image by Connie Fulton Courtesy of The Garden Club of Virginia

Nestled on a peninsula and bordered by the Nansemond River and Lake Meade, Riverview is a floral haven. This charming neighborhood is near historic downtown Suffolk and features unique homes constructed in a variety of architectural styles during the early- to mid-1900s. Charming porches and mature gardens with vibrant perennials, hydrangeas and camellias bloom along meandering brick walks. Residents of Riverview extend an invitation to guests to experience the classic appeal of six beautiful homes with lovingly maintained grounds.

The Middle Peninsula’s trip highlights Tappahannock and the rural northern region of Essex County. It is rich in history and situated along the picturesque Rappahannock River. Ancient trees, verdant farms, four centuries of architecture, stunning river views and gardens await the visitor. Highlights of the tour include a historic inn and four private residences. Additionally, visitors on the tour can pre-purchase boxed lunches from the recently restored oldest pub in Virginia.

Virginia’s picturesque Eastern Shore offers friendly hospitality, immaculately preserved coastlines and a rich history. Watch the sun rise over the Atlantic Ocean and set over the Chesapeake Bay when you spend a day in the southernmost part of the Delmarva peninsula. This tour takes you around Northampton County’s new and old mansions and gardens. Take in the annual tour highlight, National Historic Landmark Eyre Hall, a renowned ancestral home with some of the oldest continually kept gardens in the nation. The villas and gardens of Cape Charles, the Eastern Shore’s heralded railroad-turned-beach town, serve as the tour’s focal point to the south.

The Williamsburg shuttle tour immerses tourists in the local arts and culture, passing through three houses with gardens in the lovely Walnut Hills district. It provides entry to portrait artist Nancy Harris’s former studio. A lifetime’s worth of artwork is on display in another highlighted property. The tour also includes the circa-1937 residence of local music hero Jock Darling. Darling was Bruton Parish Church’s musical director. Geddy Park, an Eagle Scout project, is nearby. Visitors will enjoy a visit to Colonial Williamsburg either before or after their visit to Walnut Hills. The tour includes two residences in the 18th-century city and a guided walking tour of four Colonial Revival Gardens on the way to historic sites.

Historic Garden Tours of Western Virginia

Region West includes Staunton, Morven, Albemarle County, Monticello, the Pavilion Gardens at UVA, Lynchburg, Harrisonburg, Montpelier, Washington & Lee and Lexington.

A stroll down Ridgeview Road, home to magnificent Colonial Revivals and quaint cottages, offers a stunning glimpse of Staunton’s early 20th century residential development. Enter four residences created by renowned local architect Samuel Collins of T.J. Collins & Son. Observe how the owners’ imaginative modifications blend well with his brilliant use of classical aspects. The grounds feature boxwood hedges, floral borders, white picket fences and planted patios, including one by well-known landscape architect Charles Gillette.

The Albemarle-Charlottesville tour features three quite different houses in Free Union, ten miles north of Charlottesville, with magnificent vistas of the Blue Ridge Mountains. During Historic Garden Week, a property including exquisitely designed gardens, pathways, and an orchard is part of this self-guided tour. Next is the Ballard-Maupin Cabin, a renovated late 18th century farmhouse tucked up against a pond surrounded by trees. Waterperry Farm is also on the tour. Originally a 19th-century home and farm, it has been transformed into an expansive botanical garden that well honors its namesake, the famed Waterperry Garden in England. Lush garden rooms and lovely water features, sculptures and a lovely greenhouse create an unparalleled landscape filled with plant collections that range from overflowing cutting beds of cottage blooms and roses to native grasses in a bog garden. Each garden room includes architectural arbors, gates, artworks and more. Since the Charlottesville area garden sites are large and may include a lot of walking, visitors should bring suitable walking shoes. Charlottesville has recently started development of the new Botanical Garden of the Piedmont which can make a nice side trip from the tour.

Orange, Virginia, Image by Carla Passarello Courtesy of the Garden Club of Virginia

Historic Waterperry, © Robert Radifera Photography for Virginia Wine & Country Life

Tulips at Morven Park, Image by Terry Lowman, Courtesy of The Garden Club of Virginia

The Harrisonburg self-driving tour travels through Northern Rockingham County, an area rich in history, breathtaking scenery, and lush agriculture along Route 11. It consists of a modern house perched on a hill with views of the Great Wagon Road and the Shenandoah Valley as well as a majestic manor and rustic lodge. Shopping, restaurants, and museums are all in the nearby New Market, providing a full day of historical exploration. The tour sites are located a short drive south of Harrisonburg’s bustling downtown center.

Near the beautiful town of Orange, five historic land-rich properties in Greene and Madison Counties are open for garden lovers. All are protected by conservation easements and enjoy the Blue Ridge Mountains as a picturesque background. Each property illustrates a distinct method of bringing nature into garden design, whether through managing invasive plants, maintaining woodlands, creating wildflower meadows or combining native trees and plants. Using a variety of architectural designs from a stately home to an opulent mansion, the owners have made a space for themselves as well as for wildlife, pollinators and birds. The charming town of Gordonsville nearby makes a pleasant stop for lunch and shopping.

Historic Garden Tours of Central Virginia

The tours included in this region are Ashland-Hanover Country, Historic Berkeley, Shirley and Westover, Petersburg: Prince George, Fredericksburg: King George, Richmond: Westhampton, Northern Neck, Richmond: West Avenue, Richmond: Three Chopt, and GVC restoration sites Executive Mansion and the Kent-Valentine.

The Richmond tours are broken up into several districts. The Westhampton features a 1921-built home with a garden that was entirely restored as of 2000. The Historic Fan District’s “The Crooked House,” a 1920 Victorian home that once was a church rectory, has also had interesting renovations. The Three Chopt tour takes a historical look at five properties shaded by Japanese maples, covered with climbing vines or featuring a koi pond surrounded by various plants and flowers.

Additionally, the Richmond Executive Mansion and the Kent-Valentine House are both restoration projects that tourists can explore. Admission to each is free and offers the opportunity to see astounding architecture, the Gillette Garden and to see GCV’s restoration work in action. Garden lovers visiting Richmond with extra time after their tour may want to also visit the lovely Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens, one of the finest on the East Coast or Agecroft Hall and Gardens near the trendy Carytown neighborhood. It is a 16th century Lancashire manor home that has been transported to Virginia stone by stone and rebuilt amongst exquisitely recreated formal and kitchen gardens. 

Three historic properties and a church established in the early 1600s are open on a special combo ticket. Guests can visit Historic Berkeley, Shirley and Westover and tour the extensive grounds, gardens, numerous outbuildings and first floor interiors. The properties were settled in the early 1600s as tobacco plantations. All three are nestled along the James River, off scenic Route 5 in bucolic Charles City County. Westover Church served as the local parish. Their recorded histories date back over 400 years, interwoven with stories of the earliest indigenous people, European settlers and indentured servants, enslaved Africans and their descendants through the colonization, founding, fighting and reconstruction of the United States of America. Virginia and National Historic Landmarks.

Richmond's River Hill Estate, Photo by Rene Scott Courtesy of The Garden Club of Virginia

Fredericksburg Property, Image by Kathy Firtala, Courtesy of The Garden Club of Virginia

Hague House in Northern Neck, Image by Becky Latane Courtesy of The Garden Club of Virginia

Discover the ageless charm of Richmond’s Windsor Farms, an elite community designed in the early 1920s by the visionary Thomas C. Williams, Jr.. Enter this area that dates back almost a century and you’ll be mesmerized. Homes built by prominent historical architects like Duncan Lee and Clarence Huff have been updated by current visionaries like Dan Ensminger. Take in stunning gardens painstakingly designed by renowned landscape architects like Charles Gillette and John Nolen and immaculately updated by garden aficionados like Jeff Cartwright and Russell Combs. Explore a world where elegance, history, and contemporary luxury come together.

Fredericksburg’s beautiful lower Caroline Street (the 100-300 blocks) is one of the most prestigious residential neighborhoods in the town’s 40-block National Historic District. Notable people from the local community as well as from the nation’s past have called this beautiful neighborhood home. The majestic homes of Lower Caroline have a history dating back to 1764, but they coexist peacefully with the newer construction on the street. Its well-kept historic landscapes and varied architectural styles—many of which border the serene Rappahannock River—set apart its elegant lineup of residences. This area of the city has an amazing display of spring tulips thanks to the support of a residential bulb aficionado.

HGW’s tours are an unforgettable way to experience Virginia’s lush landscape in the midst of its flourish in the springtime. It’s also a unique way to explore the historic gardens of the Commonwealth and get an inside look into the future of the ongoing garden restoration work as well. Ticket purchases support the ongoing restoration and preservation work of GCV. Links to purchase tickets for individual tours as well as purchase of the discounted FLOWER Magazine State Pass are available on the site as well.

Additional gardens to explore and inspiration for your own garden at home can be found at the Lynchburg Home & Garden of Harlem Renaissance poet Anne Spencer, explore the 2023 Historic Garden Week Tour highlights, marvel at the botanical art of Francoise Weeks who taught a Virginia Garden Club symposium, raise chickens or plant your Virginia garden with perennial favorites lavender, wisteria and hydrangea. ~

JENNIFER BRYERTON is Co-Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Wine & Country Life. She is an avid gardener, home cook and wine-taster. She enjoys learning about Virginia viticulture and sharing the story of our local farm-to-table makers.