How You Can Participate in Historic Garden Week

Part 4 of 4 in our series “Behind-the-Scenes at Virginia’s Historic Garden Week (HGW)”! Today we’ll discover the people behind this state-wide event and how you may be able to participate in a variety of ways. But first, if you missed the previous posts, you can find them here.

Part 1 – All You Need to Know About Virginia’s Historic Garden Week

Part 2 – Selecting Homes for Historic Garden Week

Part 3 – Preparing for Virginia’s Historic Garden Week

Don’t forget that many of the answers in these posts were provided directly in a written interview with Adele. She was the Chairperson for the tour hosted by the Garden Club of Middle Peninsula, so you’ll see her name, like this, [Adele] next to the information in those cases.

How Many Volunteers Does it Take to Staff a Tour for Historic Garden Week?

[Adele] That’s impossible to answer!  For the Middle Peninsula Club, first we have all the club members who’ve volunteered for the entire year – selling ads, asking for donations, writing articles, making brochures, contacting suppliers, selecting and contracting with vendors for the Marketplace (not unique to our club, but not done by all and not to the extent that we did ours), working as Flower Chairs of each house, working as House Chairs to have people stationed around the houses, making arrangements, then serving as hostesses on the day of the tour. 

Every member of the club is involved in some way, so we can start with a minimum of 50 club members for one tour location. This year we had five houses on tour, one church, and headquarters to staff with two shifts for each, so we went to the homeowners’ friends and our own friends to find the extra people to work the tour. We might have had close to 20 more working on the day of the tour. Those were compensated with a free ticket to visit the houses on the part of the day they weren’t working.

Sometimes lunches are available for tour attendees for an additional cost. How does that work?

[Adele] Since some attendees like to spend the full day touring, they’re often looking for a place to have lunch. So, when we do a rural tour with no restaurants nearby, we ask a church, fire station auxiliary or civic group if they’d like to provide a lunch as a fundraiser.

We don’t tell them what to serve or receive any money from the lunch, but we do give them some advice about how it’s been done in the past and advertise it in our guidebook article. This is a win-win for everyone! We help out another non-profit organization and our guests get a great lunch.

Can I Volunteer to Help with HGW Tours?

[Adele] Most definitely! I understand that some clubs, like Williamsburg have a day when anyone who wants to help can meet at a specified location and they get hundreds who come!

In our case, you would contact someone in the club and ask for the Chair of HGW for the upcoming tour, who will either take your name or direct you to a House Chairperson.

If you aren’t sure who to contact, then get in touch with Garden Club of Virginia(GCV) headquarters either by calling or contacting them through the GVC website. Ask for the closest HGW tour in your area and they will either give you a name of a Chair or take your name and have them call you.

What Other Ways Can I Be Involved in Historic Garden Week?

Here’s just a glimpse at one of the HGW Tour descriptions in 2019.

“Enjoy a delightful tea hosted by the Rappahannock Valley Garden Club and “Farm to Table” box lunches. Visitors will have access to a horticultural display and a Plein Air artist presentation, making for a full day in the countryside.”

Fredericksburg Historic Garden Week Tour Description

As you can imagine, opportunities are limited only by the creativity of the individual Garden Clubs. Check in Parts 1 through 3 of this Series, to find out more about these options:

• Attending the HGW tours, spreading the word and inviting friends is the easiest way to support the excellent causes that the Garden Club of Virginia funds, but there’s so much more…
• Homeowners can offer their homes to be on the tour.
• Companies or individuals can donate funds or services, like printing, or portable restrooms, etc. to help minimize tour expenses.
• Local non-profit organizations may be able to host a fund-raising lunch nearby for tour attendees.
• Businesses in town may be able to sell HGW tickets at their site before the event.
• Local sites can offer their venue as the headquarters and check-in location for a tour
• Individuals may be able to volunteer to help on the day of the tour.
• Crafters or small businesses may be able to sell appropriate products at an HGW Marketplace.
• Some clubs have also invited:
  • Reenactors to portray historical figures related to the tour sites
  • Speakers who share about topics of interest, like gardening tips or local history
  • And plein air artists to capture the beauty of the homes through the eye of an painter on the day of the tour.

Are you aware of any tour companies that offer coordinated tours to HGW locations?

[Adele] Not that I’m aware of, but what a great idea! We do contact local retirement communities who sometimes bring small buses to our tours. We have also had other Garden Clubs coordinate bus trips to other tours around the state. Once an historic house in Fredericksburg had a Board meeting and offered a bus trip to the Board members’ significant others for the Middle Peninsula tour. We were delighted!

Since the primary goal of Historic Garden Week is to raise funds for all the projects and initiatives that Garden Club of Virginia is committed to supporting, the more, the merrier. We would love to share the beauty of this gorgeous Commonwealth with visitors from around the world!