Spring is definitely here in Richmond Virginia.  Azaleas, dogwoods, irises and other mid-Spring blooms are evident everywhere in Richmond’s historic Fan District.  Our urban yard is also showing signs of spring.  Here, at the William Miller House Bed and Breakfast, azaleas, camellia, and even our front-and-center dogwood are in their glory.  The weather is milder and porch-sitting, despite the pollen, is back in season – as is relaxing in the courtyard garden.

Here’s the latest blooms in our garden:

Azaleas show their color

Dogwood welcomes guests at Richmond's premier bed and breakfast

Bottlebrush, anyone?

But, this weekend begins Historic Garden Week in Virginia, with homes and gardens across Virginia open to ticketholders.  Often termed America’s Largest and Grandest Open House, Garden Week features tours in Richmond on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Information. So make your plans and y’all come!

The Garden Club of Virginia has organized the 78th Annual Historic Garden Week in Virginia from April 16th through April 23rd, presenting house and garden tours all across the state of Virginia.

Virginians from north, south, in the mountains, and by the sea are opening their doors and gates to welcome visitors to their unforgettable gardens and delightful homes dressed for Spring with fabulous flower arrangements provided by local garden clubs.  Most of the properties welcoming visitors on specific days are privately owned, but the proceeds from this tour support the preservation and restoration of the grounds of more than three dozen of Virginia’s historic landmarks.

Richmond is proud to host tours on Tuesday April 19th, Wednesday April 20th, and Thursday April 21st. Schedule.

78th Annual Historic Garden Week in Virginia Special in Richmond April 18 - 20. Book today!

Tuesday’s tour features homes and gardens in Richmond’s Hampton Gardens/Cary Street Road area. Built in the 20′s and 30′s, these homes range from Georgian Revival to English Tudor to Colonial. Each is filled with furnishings and art that reflect the personalities of its owners.  Gardens range from dramatic slopes with multiple stone terraces highlighted with banks of roses to a private backyard with a low maintenance garden of river birch, hydrangea, hosta, and Virginia’s famed azaleas.

Wednesday’s tour highlights the grandeur of Monument Avenue, the first street in America to be named a National Historic Landmark.  Homes open for the tour reflect a variety of sophisticated American and European architectural styles popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Grand entrances, soaring spaces, period architectural details, and manicured gardens and courtyards provide a feast for your eyes and wonderful ideas to take home with you.  Make prior arrangements and have lunch at the Branch House, the largest single family home built on Monument Avenue, now the Virginia Center for Architecture at 2501 Monument Avenue. Homes on Monument Avenue are not often open to the public – this is an opportunity not to be missed!

Thursday’s tour takes place in the Windsor Farms area of Richmond and includes the Windsor House built in 1945 on the site of the Windsor Farm. Located in a park-like setting, originally designed by Charles Gillette, noted landscape architect, the original brick structure and its seamless additions are an oasis in the city.  Even a later home, a Dutch Colonial built in 1970, opens its doors and gardens to the public on this Wednesday. Enjoy a prearranged lunch under a tent at Agecroft Hall and enjoy the grounds and gardens of Agecroft as an added bonus.

Here’s an inn-side tip: plan to attend all three tours in Richmond, and book your three-night stay at Richmond’s premier bed and breakfast right in the middle of it all in the heart of Richmond’s historic Fan District. Book your stay for Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday nights – April 18, 19, 20, reference OPEN HOUSE, and get 35% off Wednesday’s room rate.  In addition, you’ll get a hearty gourmet breakfast every morning that will stick to your ribs for the day’s walking tour. Come back to the inn, enjoy our complimentary evening wine and cheese in the inn’s private gardens.  You’ll get free off-street parking, private en-suite bathrooms, and even free Wi-Fi to keep up with your e-mail – if you must.

The tours are walking tours, so please wear comfortable walking shoes for your own safety and as a courtesy to the homeowners who have generously opened their residences for the tour. Each ticket will have a map of the houses open on the tour.  Organizers of the tours request no interior photography or sketching and no use of cell phones within the tour houses.  Tickets will be available on tour day at any of the properties open for touring. Advance tickets for the tour are available on-line, as are guidebooks with all the details about each property and tours across the state.  Luncheons must be prearranged as well! Make your plans now!

West Avenue Garden Week Tour is just three short blocks from the premier Richmond VA bed and breakfast; and one of the homes on the West Avenue tour on Thursday, April 22 is featured in an article by Julie Young of Richmond’s Times-Dispatch.  Read the entire article here.

But, don’t forget! Historic Garden Week in Virginia features three tours in the Richmond area next week: Windsor Farms’ Elegant Family Living Tour on Tuesday, April 20; historic homes of the Church Hill Tour on Wednesday, April 21; and, West Avenue Plus Two Walking Tour on Thursday April 22. Tour Information.

Make your reservation at the best Richmond inn (according to our guests’ comments) and be in the middle of it all!  Start your day with a hearty gourmet breakfast and after a day of touring sip a glass of wine in our private urban garden with azaleas in full bloom!

The Richmond, Virginia area hosts three house and garden tours as part of Historic Garden Week in Virginia on Tuesday April 20, Wednesday April 21, and Thursday April 22.  This is the 77th Historic Garden Week organized by The Garden Club of Virginia. and is the oldest and largest program of its kind in the nation.  Creating beautiful gardens has been the tradition in Virginia since the 17th century. More than 200 homes throughout Virginia will be open to visitors to benefit historic preservation and restoration of important historic gardens.  Previous projects include gardens formerly owned by such notables as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and Patrick Henry, to name a few.  This worthwhile cause affords visitors the opportunity to enjoy and visit private gardens and homes bursting with the blooms and promise of  Virginia’s beautiful spring.

Make your plans now to stay in our Richmond inn and be centrally located to the  three Richmond tours: Windsor Farms, Church Hill, and West Avenue in the historic Fan District – just 3 blocks away!  Plan a Spring getaway with us, after  a hearty gourmet breakfast Tuesday morning spend the day visiting the Windsor Farms neighborhood.

Between 10 AM and 4:30 PM on Tuesday April 20th, 7 homes and gardens reflecting elegant family living from a 1950′s Cape Cod with a seamless integration of old and new spaces, to a stately 1929 Tudor, one of the first houses built in Windsor Farms. Also featured are a 1935 formal brick Georgian, a former ranch remodeled twice and featuring an extensive art collection, and a stone cottage built as a wedding present in the early 1930′s. Art, antiques, family heirlooms, a mix of old and new, and lush gardens invite visitors to enjoy the best of Richmond’s Windsor Farms neighborhood.  To rest your weary toes, head back to our bed and breakfast for the evening wine and cheese hour and relish in our private urban garden while you plan your dining experience at one of our neighborhood eateries.

Wednesday, April 21st, from 10 AM to 4:30 PM, it’s off to Church Hill!  A rousing reenactment of Patrick Henry’s “Give Me Liberty or GIve Me Death” speech at St. John’s Church is free as a special bonus to Garden Week’s Church Hill ticket holders. Plan to be seated by 12:30 PM, reenactment will last about 40 minutes. The Church Hill neighborhood has been undergoing a careful and painstaking restoration movement of its historic properties for at least the past 50 years.  One of Carrington Row’s homes will be featured; as will the Burton Farrar House built between 1818 and 1824. A Greek Revival built in 1861, St John’s Mews (a carefully constructed landscaping project on the site of two demolished buildings), a Federal period “bowfront” residence from about 1810, and an Italianate home built in 1881 are all featured.  Spend the day touring Church Hill and then return to our Greek Revival bed and breakfast built in 1869 for another chance to select from neighborhood dining spots and to enjoy our private urban garden.

After Thursday’s breakfast, a short three block stroll takes you to the West Avenue Plus Two Walking Tour.  Homes and gardens are open between 10 Am and 4:30 PM along one of the prettiest streets in Richmond’s Historic Fan District.  Townhouses open to Historic Garden Week ticket holders are as diverse as their owners: from sophisticated, contemporary, fashionable, eclectic, traditional, to precisely refined. Art ranges from African wildlife to contemporary, from abstract to portraits.  Gardens include a petit jardin Francais, a planted patio created by a garden historian and author, as well as a walled Charleston garden.  This is city-living at its best and a tour not to be missed!

Each tour requires an individual ticket available at the Garden Week website, along with more detailed information, including a special offer for a statewide ticket. So pick your room now, and take advantage of our central location for all three Richmond tours. You won’t be disappointed.

Our Richmond inn is “in the middle of it all” for two fun-filled Richmond events in April!

Wear your finest bonnet and enter into the Bonnet contest on April 4 at the Lee monument!

Venture Richmond brings Easter on Parade, that annual event bringing over 25,000 Richmonders and Virginians to Monument Avenue on Easter Sunday.  It’s not a traditional parade: attendees parade up and down scenic Monument Avenue between Allen and Davis Avenues.  Monument Avenue, named to the National Register of Historic Landmarks, will be closed to all but pedestrian traffic between Allen and Davis (or the Robert E Lee and Jefferson Davis monuments) on Easter Sunday, April 4, 2010 between 1 PM and 5 PM. The celebration includes music, arts, crafts, children’s activities, food, a petting zoo – and most importantly pet and people watching.  Everyone will be dressed in their finest or most outlandish regalia!  Highlights include a Pet Bonnet Showcase/Contest at 3 PM and a People Bonnet Showcase/Contest at 4 PM.  Don’t miss it!

Historic Garden Week in Virginia's Guidebook and tour tickets are the key to visit private homes and gardens April 17 though April 25

Historic Garden Week in Virginia, presented by the Garden Club of Virginia, is scheduled for April 17 through 25, 2010.  The Garden Club of Virginia has been holding this event for 77 years and devoting the proceeds to preserving Virginia’s heritage properties and gardens.  Though featuring homes and gardens all over the Commonwealth of Virginia, the Windsor Farms neighborhood of Richmond area will be featured on Tuesday April 20, Church Hill, on Wednesday April 21, and West Avenue, just two blocks away from our bed and breakfast, will open homes and gardens to visitors on Thursday April 22.  In addition special evening activities are planned Thursday at Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens.

Make your plans now to take advantage of these very Virginia events! Pick your guest room at our historic Fan District bed and breakfast and make it a Spring Fling! to remember on Easter weekend or during Garden Week or – even both.  We’d love to share the best of central Virginia with you.