Tour Schedule April – August 2024

NEW! Themed Friday Drop-In Tours IN-PERSON

Join a Garden Guide for a 30-minute mini-tour featuring a variety of unique topics! No pre-registration required. Free to members or with paid admission. Meet in the Atrium of the Robins Visitors Center. Each tour will start at 1 pm and be limited to 15 participants.

Viburnums | Friday, April 12

What versatile shrub blooms in April/May, may be elegantly fragrant, widely varies in size, can be native, produces berries loved by birds, may turn colorful in fall, and gives you a choice of 100’s of species and cultivars? Join Garden Guide Daryl Mathers to see the viburnums that are in bloom on April 12 and learn how to incorporate these beauties in your garden.

Hidden Gems of the Garden | Friday, April 19

Join Garden Guide Lorrie Lincoln in exploring an area of the Garden not commonly visited by most guests. Depending on weather and construction, we will look for something a little off the beaten path. Please wear shoes appropriate for uneven ground and mud.

Springtime Blooms: Beyond Daffodils and Tulips | Friday, April 26

As daffodils and tulips fade, shrubs, perennials and late-blooming bulbs shine. Join Garden Guide Julia Cothron to view natural and cultivated rhododendrons and azaleas. See emerging peonies, iris and perhaps some roses. If lucky, we will view some ephemeral plants that must complete their life cycle before leaf cover reduces sunlight. Even though weather impacts bloom time, our woodland areas will abound with blooms.

Peonies | Friday, May 3

There can’t be a single person in the world who doesn’t love a peony! Considering their colors, forms, fragrance, foliage, symbolism and carefree longevity, this is a plant to admire. Peony varieties bloom sequentially for 6 weeks. Join Garden Guide Daryl Mathers to see what’s in bloom on May 3 and learn all we can about them.

Trees: Recognizing Leaf Types and Shapes | Friday, May 10

Are you familiar enough with leaf shapes to recognize what type of tree you’re looking at? Let’s explore with Garden Guide Lorrie Lincoln to see what leaves have “leafed out” and see what we can recognize in the Garden.

Digging Deeper into Flagler | Friday, May 17

Learn more about the history of the Henry M. Flagler Garden, completed in May 1993 and the first major project of the Garden’s masterplan. Garden Guide Anita Waters will start the tour at the Ian Robertson Pavilion and stroll along the 500-foot lawn to the sculpture “Slow Dance.”

---

Public Guided Tours* IN-PERSON

*Public Guided Tours require pre-registration through our website.

Seasonal Garden Tours

Enhance your understanding and appreciation of the Garden with one of these specialized tours featuring seasonal aspects of the collection, offered monthly except January, July, August and December.

April Seasonal Garden Tours: April 24

May Seasonal Garden Tours: May 7 OR May 14

June Seasonal Garden Tours: June 4 OR June 25

---

Evening Seasonal Garden Tours

Enjoy an evening out in the Garden! Enhance your understanding and appreciation of featured seasonal aspects of the collection. Come dressed for the weather and walking in the Garden.

May Evening Seasonal Garden Tour | May 22

June Evening Seasonal Garden Tour | June 12

---

Talk and Tours

Conservation & Sustainability Talk and Walk | May 15

Join Garden Guide Susie Austin for a talk about the many ways we practice sustainability here at the Garden including conserving water, planting native species and recycling. Then enjoy a walk around the Garden to see some of our current efforts at work and discuss how some of these could be adopted for use in your home garden.

Native Moths & Butterflies Talk & Tour | June 6

What are some of our native moths and butterflies? What do their caterpillars look like? What do they need for survival? Come talk and see pictures of some of our native moths and butterflies and learn what their host foods are. Then enjoy a walk around the Garden to see what we can find.

Pollinators and Pollinator Habitats Talk & Tour | June 20

What is a pollinator? Why are pollinators so important? What do they need for habitats? How can you create a habitat? Come talk about what pollinators are, what they do and what is necessary for them to survive. Then we will enjoy a walk around the Garden looking to see what pollinators we can find and what pollinator habitats we have created here in the Garden.

---

Themed Tours

Enjoy a guided tour of the Garden through the lens of a particular themed topic! All “Flourish” tours in this section are part of the Garden’s 40th Anniversary celebration.

Hidden Life of Trees Tour | April 16

Join Garden Guide Ralph Ashton for a walk through the Garden to explore how trees interact to help each other, migrate in response to climate change, avoid extinction or reappear after having been declared extinct, as well as other stories that trees have to tell us.

Spring Migration Tour | April 27

Enjoy a pleasant walk in the Garden with Garden Guides Buz and Barb Sawyer and learn about how birds use our 80 acres to rest, refuel and continue the journey north to their breeding grounds. Discover what birds will be passing through or arriving in Richmond for the summer.

Virginia Native Plants in Context Tour | April 28

Come tour the Garden with Garden Guide Rich Waiton to find both prominent and some lesser-known native Virginia trees, shrubs and perennials. We’ll learn how they fit into the taxonomy (or world-wide botanical order) and relate to other plants of interest which are indigenous to North America and other areas of the world. We’ll discuss the practical implications of native plant terminology including genus, species, cultivar and nativar.

Hydrangeas Walk & Talk | May 30

Garden Guide and hydrangea enthusiast Rich Waiton leads tours of the Garden’s collections of these favorite summer shrubs. Come dressed for the weather and walking in the Garden.

NEW! Flourish: Shade Plants of Flagler Garden Tour | May 31 OR June 10

Shine a light on shade in this tour of Flagler Garden! As part of the Garden’s 40th Anniversary Flourish celebration, Flagler Garden will have a stunning horticultural display that includes three-acres of shade plants. Under a leafy canopy, you’ll learn to define classes of shade in the perennial garden and about the importance of trees and plants in urban settings to alleviate heat islands. As part of the tour, see an arch featuring shade-loving plants near the Monet Bridge. You’ll walk away with the confidence that it’s possible to grow beautiful gardens in the shade!

NEW! Flourish: Grace Arents Victorian Garden Tour | June 13 OR June 18

The Victorian era had a profound impact on landscape architecture and the design of gardens. During this period, there was a significant shift in gardening styles and philosophies, driven by changes in society, technology, and cultural preferences. Come tour the Victorian-inspired horticultural display in Grace Arents Garden as part of our 40th Anniversary Flourish celebration! We’ll talk about how horticulture has evolved and continues to change. Palms, ferns and tropicals in elevated urns and containers will complement a space that marries tradition and modern design. On one stop along the way, Elizabeth Fogel, our Associate Director of Horticulture, will share how she created this magnificent display.

NEW! Flourish: Edibles in the Children’s Garden Tour | July 31

Come explore the Children’s Garden as we celebrate the past 40 years and look forward to the next 40. On this tour, see how the Children’s Garden is FLOURISHing! Explore the many different and intriguing areas of this section of the Garden, including those with food for insects and birds, and the herb garden and Farm Garden with its many edibles. Stroll through a series of arbors featuring fast-growing vines and learn more about these fascinating plants. This area of the Garden will focus on the senses and have sensory experiences that emphasize the health and wellness benefits of plants. On one stop along the way, Elizabeth Fogel, our Associate Director of Horticulture, will share some of the fascinating plants on display from around the world that humans rely on for food, clothing and other needs.

NEW! Flourish: A Tropical Extravaganza | July 25 OR August 22

The Central Garden and Conservatory are lush with tropical plants featuring large leaves, unusual colors and spectacular blooms. Join Horticulturist Jayton Howard and Garden Guide Julia Cothron to explore this tropical extravaganza, which will be especially luscious for our 40th Anniversary Flourish celebration! You will be transported to an exotic paradise as you explore beauty and biodiversity. You’ll even see a whimsical “turtle topiary” created from colorful annuals and succulents basking in the middle of the Foundation Garden, surrounded by aquatic plants such as waterlilies and lotus. Get ideas for creating a tropical vibe in large pots or on a trellis and become inspired to garden with tropical plants.