Make Flowers Bloom
Watch historic gardens come alive with the arrival of spring
Each spring, more than 250 homes and landmarks across the state of Virginia open their gardens to the public for Historic Garden Week, presented by the Garden Club of Virginia. The tour in Albemarle County includes the gardens at Monticello, Morven Estate, Carr’s Hill and UVA’s pavilion gardens, which were restored by the Garden Club of Virginia from the late 1940s through 60s. In the photos below, slide the arrows left and right to see the gardens transform from dreary late winter into glorious, blooming spring.
A symmetrical pattern created with the boxwood parterres is typical of garden design in Thomas Jefferson’s day. The bench is an important focal point in the design in this Pavilion garden. In the “before” photo, gardener Michael Beaudreau, who maintains five gardens on the west side of the Lawn, stands to the right.
In April, the gardens at Morven are abloom with spring-flowering shrubs and bulbs.
Because tulips are mentioned more than any other flower in Thomas Jefferson’s Garden Book, historians consider it his favorite flower. Every year he and his family eagerly awaited the blossoms from the bulbs they had planted the previous autumn along his “Roundabout Walk.”
White Darwin tulips hover above a sea of blue violas, echoing the white froth of dogwood blossoms at Carr’s Hill, home of the president of the University of Virginia. The pink flowering dogwood stand out in contrast.
For more information on Historic Garden Week and Jefferson-era properties featured on the tour, visit vagardenweek.org.
