Cockade City Garden Club serves lunch

PETERSBURG — The Petersburg Garden Club will host a tour this Tuesday during The Garden Club of Virginia’s 89th annual Historic Garden Week. Homeowners and Club members are excited to share their talents, passions and spring beauties on Petersburg Garden Day.

The self-driving tour from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., primarily focused in the Historic Poplar Lawn area, features four private homes and gardens as well as an enchanted woodland garden.

The homes open for your viewing pleasure this year are located at 129 Marshall Street [Michael Maszaros], 133 Marshall Street [Jill Hendricks and Jason Lucas], 215 South Jefferson Street [Deborah and Conway Boyce], 221 South Jefferson Street [Eleni and Richard Murphy], and garden only at 1675 Mount Vernon Street [Barb and Gary Rudolph].

Visit VAGardenWeek.org to purchase tickets and read descriptions of each property. At the top of the website, click on Tour Guidebook. The Petersburg tour can be found on pages 170 – 172. The $35 tickets are only available online and must be purchased in advance.

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Flowers, food, fashion

If tourists get hungry, the Cockade City Garden Club will be serving lunch at Second Presbyterian Church at 419 W. Washington St. from 11:30 a.m. – 2 p.m. Tickets can be purchased in advance for $12 at Palmore Decorating Center, Boulevard Flower Gardens or All Manor of Things Gift Shop at Weston Manor in Hopewell.

Diners will be treated to a continuous fashion show provided by All Manor of Things Gift Shop. In addition to the lunch and fashion show, there will be a geranium sale. To order, contact Linda Wynne at [email protected] or 804-399-5258.

Charles F. Gillette exhibition

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Ticket holders are invited to preview “Matters of Scale: Charles F. Gillette in Petersburg,” a new exhibit at the Petersburg Library, which opens to the public the following day on Wednesday, April 27.

Story continues

Did you know that renowned landscape architect Charles F. Gillette [1886–1969] designed gardens in Petersburg? The special exhibit will feature Gillette’s garden blueprints for Petersburg clients. He created landscape designs for many clients during the ’20s and ’50s, 10 Petersburg clients. It will also include his desk and a bench that he designed and made.

“Matters of Scale” limited-edition prints commemorating Petersburg Garden Day and the Gillette exhibition will be on sale at the Library, $20 unsigned, $30 signed. Artist Catherine Venable’s painting features properties on the tour, the Petersburg Library as well as garden club members making flower arrangements.

Petersburg points of interest

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Visit Centre Hill Museum to enjoy a complimentary cup of tea and cookies in the dining room of the Bolling family home.

Historic Battersea has been under meticulous renovation and is open for the Petersburg Garden Day tour for the first time. Trolleys will be available to transport tourists from the Petersburg Public Library to the villa at 1289 Upper Appomattox Road. This rare example of Palladian-style architecture is listed on the Virginia Landmarks Register and the National Register of Historic Places.

The Exchange Building Museum at 15 W. Bank Street, currently the Petersburg Visitor Center, houses Petersburg’s 400-year history, and check out 15 original Louis Comfort Tiffany stained-glass windows at Blandford Church Museum at 111 Rochelle Lane.

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Virginia Historic Garden Week

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Photography of any kind is prohibited inside tour properties, and some tours prohibit exterior photography as well. Smoking and pets are not allowed.

On-site parking is available at each Petersburg property. Contact Tour Cochair Kay Freeman at 804-733-7267 for bus and group tour information or send an email to [email protected].

Centre Hill Museum will serve as the Tour Headquarters. Visit 1 Centre Hill Avenue, if you have questions on the day of the tour.

Virginia Historic Garden Week takes place April 23 – 30. Proceeds from the tour fund the Garden Club of Virginia’s restoration and preservation of historic public gardens throughout Virginia.

2021 Garden Week tour: Historic Garden Week is in full bloom: Petersburg Garden Club hosts self-driving tour

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— Kristi K. Higgins aka The Social Butterfly columnist is the trending topics and food Q&A reporter at The Progress-Index. Have a news tip on local trends or businesses? Contact Kristi (she, her) at [email protected], follow @KHiggins_PI on Twitter @socialbutterflykristi on Instagram, and subscribe to us at progress-index.com.

This article originally appeared on The Progress-Index: Petersburg Garden Club hosts Garden Day tour: 4 homes, 1 garden