VISITING GARDENS COMMITTEE

The committee plans trips to educate Members in garden history and design, horticulture, and the environment.  Proceeds from these tours benefit Club sponsored activities. The committee also promotes GCA sponsored trips to Members and informs Members of the opportunity to visit the gardens of other GCA club members throughout the United States as well as the gardens of GCA international courtesy clubs.

• Check out the On The Road brochure on the GCA’s Visit landing page 

• Interest Lists for domestic trips to Oahu and Asheville & the Southern Highlands have opened 

• Registration for the Palladian Villas in the Veneto, South Tyrol, and Venice has opened Contact your Visiting Gardens Zone rep for further information.

2025 GCA GARDENS EXCURSIONS

Check the Club’s homepage and calendar for links to register

April 22 Nemours Garden tour 10:00 -12:00

May 13th Margot Taylor’s SITES Certified Garden 9:00-11:00

May 19th Private Gardens of Philadelphia 9:00 All day

June 12 UD Botanical Garden Trial Gardens 10:30-12:00

NEWPORT, RHODE ISLAND INCLUDING THE NEWPORT FLOWER SHOW, JUNE 2024

Members escaped the record heat in the Mid-Atlantic by visiting Newport, Rhode Island and the neighboring peninsula of Little Compton. The trip was a wonderful introduction to this storied, historic seaside city known for its grand mansions, world-class sailing, gardens, art, colorful American history, wonderful hospitality, and the beautiful Newport Flower Show. Members were treated to two orientations, one by sea and the other on land. The trip started with an early evening boat tour of the Newport harbor dotted with Gilded Age mansions, a historic fort, America’s Cup yachts, and the charming harbor with marinas, restaurants, and shops. Orientation on land took us along the interior of the coastline, a route designed by Frederick Law Olmsted whose belief that parks and conserved land are important for every member of society to have access to enjoy the benefits of being in nature. Bellevue House along the storied avenue of the same name, encompasses twelve gardens within three and half acres. Deemed the “greatest Folly Garden I America,” it is the extraordinary work on Ronald Fleming, committed to saving Newport’s trees, initiating the million-daffodil project throughout Newport and father of Scenic America. His undertaking at Bellevue House is dazzling! Along the same avenue, on a more personal scale, members visited Parterre, the garden of taste-maker Bette Pardee. Tucked away from the coast, our director treated us to a tour of the Blue Garden. Originally designed in 1913 by Olmsted to great acclaim, it was recently restored by the late avid horticulturalist and philanthropist, Dorrance “Dodo’ Hamilton. Juxtaposed to the large properties in Newport, the group ventured to Little Compton on the peninsula East, parallel to Newport. Quiet, with vast open space, members explored issues of conservation and the challenge of sea level rise. A coastal farm that has been in the same family since arriving on the Mayflower told both stories as well as a wonderful cottage garden and coastline nearby. Along the way, the Sakonnet Garden was a hidden Eden. Three acres were crafted into garden rooms, each with a different selection of plant material which at times seemed like different ecosystems! The variety of horticulture and extensive creativity were marvelous inspirations! While members may have expected a degree of formality at the Green Animal Topiary Garden, the animals in cottage garden rooms which offered many ideas for plant combinations. After touring each day, members enjoyed hospitality at a historic tavern, a dockside restaurant, and a grand seafood buffet at Harbour Court, the Newport clubhouse of the New York Yacht Club. The trip concluded with the Newport Flower Show at Rosecliff. Displays included luxurious tablescapes, floral arrangements, botanical art, cut and potted horticulture, and creative shops on the mansion lawn. A trip book offered background on all the properties, and establishments as well as the design principles of Frederic Law Olmsted whose firm was responsible for 25 civic and 36 private projects in Newport. It was truly a memorable trip for its exploration of gardens, culture and wonderful camaraderie of the travelers.

HILLWOOD AND DUNBARTON OAKS - MAY 2022

On May 12, 2022, Club members enjoyed a day of inspiration exploring Dunbarton Oaks, designed by Beatrix Farrand and Hillwood, the home and garden of Marjorie Merriweather Post. Dumbarton Oaks is a historic estate in the Geogetown neighborhood of Washington, DC and is considered one of the great gardens of America, known by landscape designers and historians around the world.  It was the residence and garden of wealthy U.S. diplomat Robert Woods Bliss (1875–1962) and his wife Mildred Barnes Bliss (1879–1969). Opened in 1977, Hillwood Estate, Museum and Gardens is an immersive space where the captivating life of Marjorie Merriweather Post and the exquisitely maintained Mansion and Gardens combine to create an experience unlike any other. When art collector, businesswoman, social figure and philanthropist Marjorie Post left to the public her northwest Washington, DC estate, she endowed the country with the most comprehensive collection of Russian imperial art outside of Russia, an exquisite eighteenth-century French decorative art collection, twenty-five acres of serene landscaped gardens and natural woodlands and a pristine Georgian-style mansion displaying Post's exquisite way of life.

part of  THE GARDEN CLUB of AMERICA  since 1920