Historic Garden Week: The Most Stunning Virginia Gardens for Spring Flowers

The owners more than 120 of Virginia’s most beautiful private properties will open their front doors and garden gates for Historic Garden Week, April 26 – May 3. The 92nd rendition of the event continues to raise funds to restore and preserve the state’s historic public gardens. 

Founded in 1920, the Garden Club of Virginia’s first standing committee was its Conservation Committee, making it one of the oldest and most significant organizations in Virginia to promote the conservation of natural resources and stewardship of the environment. 

“Members of the Garden Club of Virginia are committed to a greener Virginia for all to appreciate. As momentum for environmental preservation builds, our mission is more important than ever,” Kris Carbone, the statewide organization’s President, said. “Historic Garden Week is the perfect event for eco-friendly tourists.” 

The only statewide house and garden tour in the country, this springtime tradition is an occasion to share sustainable practices with the roughly 24,000 visitors who attend annually. Many GCV clubs organize special activities on their tour day. Topics range from learning about conservation easements to beekeeping and how to create a rain garden. 

In addition to accessing private properties, guests will enjoy more than 1,000 floral arrangements created by talented GCV members to decorate spaces open to the public during this eight-day open house. GCV members provide their time and talents and share the bounty of their gardens for this statewide floral fest, making this a unique opportunity for gardeners to get inspired and learn about what’s thriving in various parts of Virginia in the springtime. 

“We are thrilled to highlight native plants, which provide habitat for local wildlife, including birds and pollinators,” Virginia Gillock, Historic Garden Week’s 2024-2026 Chair, shared. “These plants require less effort to thrive in your garden because they are adapted to it.” 

In 2019, Historic Garden Week marketing materials showcased Mertensia virginica, or the Virginia bluebell, a plant native to eastern North America. For Historic Garden Week 2025, Coreopsis lanceolata is highlighted.  

“This sun-loving, low-maintenance perennial blooms from April to August and is easily grown from seed,” Gillock said. 

The bright yellow flower figures prominently in the event’s Guidebook, a 252-page annual publication filled with gorgeous photography and descriptions of all the homes and gardens open in support of Historic Garden Week. It is distributed free across Virginia and is also available online. 

“We take conservation and environmental stewardship seriously,” Gillock said. “Of the 29 Historic Garden Week tours taking place this spring, seven are walking tours.”  

In keeping with the GCV’s efforts to reduce plastic waste, tour visitors are encouraged to bring their reusable drink containers. It’s also recommended that attendees carpool to events.  

Check out these tours

Over 114 million American households engage in gardening. From public green spaces to community gardens to private yards, a garden is a living ecosystem that impacts the health of people, plants, animals, and the environment. For visitors looking for a green travel experience during Historic Garden Week this year, here are five tours that might be of special interest. See the full schedule of tours. 

Clarke County – Winchester 

Date: Saturday, April 26 

This tour route meanders through pastoral countryside and includes access to three properties. Montevento is a 100-acre farm built in 1998 by the current owners. The gardens required intensive amendments to the nutrient-deprived and deer-ravaged landscape.  

Among several more formal spaces that frame the view, there is a pollinator and pond garden, rich with native species. A spring visit may showcase blooming daffodils, tulips, bleeding hearts, and spring ephemerals. The owner’s management of the property includes improvements that enhance biodiversity. These enhancements include planting a small pollinator meadow, delaying bush hogging to allow grassland birds to fledge their young properly, and fencing off a wetland area from grazing livestock to protect the Chesapeake Bay watershed.  

They also employ intensive rotational cattle grazing, which has been shown to improve productivity and the nutrient value of the soil. They battle invasive species, including Multiflora Rose, Autumn Olive, and Tree of Heaven.  

To aid in this effort, the property has been the subject of biodiversity studies conducted by Virginia Working Landscapes of the Smithsonian Institution. The owners regularly see meadowlarks, barred owls, kestrels, bluebirds, and even bald eagles on the property. 

Albemarle County 

Date: Sunday, April 27 

This driving tour winds through the backroads of western Albemarle County and includes access to three properties, including the Miller School. Since its founding in 1878, the school has remained a vibrant academic, cultural, and innovative educational community. Its buildings and 1,100-acre campus embody the vision of Samuel Miller (1792-1869), a philanthropist born in Albemarle County, whose generous bequest established a regional school for children who could not afford an education.  

In addition to tours of some of the main buildings, including the president’s home, led by Miller School students, visitors will also visit a sustainable agriculture farm revived in 2020 to honor the school’s roots. Tourgoers will observe three distinct forms of gardening: no-till, raised bed, and hydroponic, as well as animal husbandry programs. 

Middleburg 

Dates: Sunday and Monday, April 27 and 28  

Virginia’s scenic hunt country is the star of this driving tour featuring three private properties, one of which is The Pond House. Its gardens ramble around two ponds beside a pre-Civil War stone barn and a large hay barn once used by ponies and horses. A chicken house and a fifty-year-old concrete silo are also located in the barnyard area.  

The naturalized setting hosts a large variety of plant material selected for the unique conditions around the property, including low wet areas, shady woodlands, and open sunny meadows. A fenced vegetable/cutting garden has raised beds flanked by strawberries. A small stream created by the owner divides the main garden area from the mostly native plantings.  

The owner firmly believes that stewarding the land for pollinators, wildlife, and clean water is paramount. Many plants are chosen because they are natives that support birds, butterflies, and bees. Another Middleburg tour property includes a garden in the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Gardens. A native plant and wildlife habitat, over 140 species of birds have been identified there. 

Norfolk 

Date: Thursday, May 1  

Showcasing the Lakewood neighborhood, this walking tour features five properties full of historic charm and modern updates, as well as an environmentally friendly garden. Home to more than 1,500 native plants, its gardens exemplify sustainable and ecologically conscious living. In 2005, the owners installed the first green roof in Hampton Roads, made from 12 varieties of sedum.  

The house also features solar panels, which offset the home’s monthly electric bill, and power the solar hot water system. A large cistern collects approximately 80,000 gallons of rainwater yearly, waters the green roof, supplies the sprinkler system, and provides water for one toilet.  

Plant varieties include St. John’s Wort, goldenrod, Carolina Rose, American Beautyberry, inkberry, New England Aster, spiderwort, Blue Star creeper, summersweet, sweetspire, Joe Pye weed, ironweed, bee balm, Culver’s root, swamp rose, swamp azalea, milkweed, native (coral) honeysuckle, blue indigo, and Queen Anne’s Lace. The extensive wetlands buffer filters sediment and nutrients from the runoff and provides shelter for wildlife. 

Virginia’s Eastern Shore 

Date: Saturday, May 3  

Visitors will enjoy beautiful gardens and historic farms and learn about coastal marine science on this driving tour with access to six properties, including Chatham Flower Farm. The oldest part of the home dates to c. 1690, with the newest section added in 1820. Central to the working flower farm’s current operation is the two-story barn, built in 1802. Committed to sustainable farming, the agritourism site practices no-till farming, and its flowers and herbs are certified naturally grown. They have an active CSA program and sell cut flowers at their farm stand and local markets. 

With 29 total tours offered in communities both large and small, urban and rural, there is something for everyone, especially tourists looking for a green travel experience.  

“Visitors travel from all over the world to enjoy Virginia’s gracious hospitality during the peak of springtime blooming,” Carbone said. “Historic Garden Week offers so much. It is a remarkable experience that improves our appreciation and understanding of the environment.”  

Indeed, Mother Nature would be proud. 

Browse the entire 2025 Historic Garden Week Guidebook, check the schedule, and purchase tickets to individual tours on the Historic Garden Week website.