
President’s Home, Richard Bland College, Petersburg, Virginia, April 21, 2015. Photo by Helen y. Holshouser
Tuesday, April 21, 2015, I had the opportunity and supreme pleasure of touring in Petersburg, Virginia during their Historic Garden Week in Virginia. Can you imagine–all over the whole state of Virginia–my home state–during April, there is an open house allowing us to see inside over 250 of the most beautiful gardens, homes,and historic landmarks in the whole state! You can read about it in detail here: http://www.vagardenweek.org/ You can download a pdf of the Garden Club of Virginia’s Historic Garden Week ‘s guidebook with information, pictures, and directions to all of the sites at http://www.vagardenweek.org/assets/documents/hgw15-guidebook-complete.pdf It is full of amazing information and would be helpful in your planning for the tour the next two days, and next year! The fact that this is a volunteer effort is incredibly awesome to me! Hours and hours of hundreds of volunteers have gone in to this effort! We actually toured five sites plus a historic church yesterday, and everywhere we were warmly greeted by Master Gardeners, homeowners, historians and other volunteers! Today I am only writing this post about two of the gardens. I will blog about all the sites in time! My friend Sharon, a neighbor and cousin, took me and my wheelchair and we met my sister Anne and two of her friends, Gail and Sandra, from Richmond. The day was 77 degrees and sunny, glorious! We had a wonderful tour, and were all majorly inspired!
One of the beautiful gardens we toured, surrounded a pond in front of the President’s home on the campus of Richard Bland College in Petersburg. While the home site is gorgeous, look at some of the pictures I took around the small pond just in front of this house! It is called an “Asian Water Feature” in the guidebook, I call it a secret garden, secret from the rest of the world! It looks like it’s modeled upon Monet’s painting of the Japanese Bridge and garden, just that beautiful! I felt a peace settle over me and an inspiration that was just wonderful!
There were Master Gardeners everywhere, and they identified every single plant I asked about, but I could only do my best in trying to remember all the names!
- Matching pots flanked the entrance path. Coleus and salvia
- Small stream runs under path
- path to Asian Water Feaure
- tulips
- Beautiful garden and small pond
- President’s Home, Richard Bland College with Asian Water Feature, April 21, 2015, Petersburg, Virginia
- Asian bridge feature
- Iris
- cypress tree with knees
- lips
- daffodils/narcissus
- snowball bush that will turn white
- Snowball, viburnum
- Fraxinus bungeana
- Euphorbia epithymoides
- Kerria japonica ‘Pleniflora’