Historic Garden Week in Virginia

The Sweet MagnoliasTaken in front of the home on Beverly Dr.

Yesterday my Red Hat Sweet Magnolia group went on the Historic Garden Tour in the Westmont subdivision here in Fredericksburg. You went on a tour of 5 homes and their gardens. All were absolutely breathtaking. So, I decided I just had to share a few of the 77 pictures I took. The hard part was deciding which ones to pick - everything was sooooo beautiful.

These are pictures of the first house we visited on Greenway Dr., built in 1966. Unfortunately, you could not take pictures inside the homes. I wish you could as they were beautiful, but I can understand why. The flowers on either side of the entrance were also used on the garland you see around the door and there were beautiful floral arrangement done by local groups throughout each house. Most of the greeters were dressed in period clothing - I'll include a few of those as well.

The second house also on Greenway Dr. was built in 1961. There are over 150 Azalea bushes decorating the grounds of this home as well as many other beautiful plants

The third house which was on Beverly Dr. was completed in 1946, with an addition being constructed in 2004 (right side from the round front porch on to the right). The backyard hosted a beautiful view with gazebo, Koi pond, swimming pool complete with a pool house that has been converted to a guest house. We were also treated to a cool beverage and homemade cookies at this location and were able to enjoy them on the patio next to the pool. I also had to include a picture of the tree on the patio with all the bird houses in it.

There are birdhouses hanging all over in this tree, look closely and you can see them.

The last two homes were on Highland Road. The first was built in the early 1950s. The current owners had some extensive renovations done in 2008. The backyard ran along side the driveway for the previous house on Highland, so we cheated and went up thru the backyard and then around to the front, toured the house and ended up in the back courtyard again. So the pictures looking up at the house are of the back of the house and looking from the bottom of the sloping yard up to the house. Later are a few from the house looking down.

The front of the house, the mulched area slopes up.

Fountain that is in middle of driveway/parking area. Yard slopes slightly down to house at end of stonework driveway (stairs on far right to go down to house)

The 5th and final house was built by its current owners in 2005 and is the newest of the houses and was absolutely beautiful. It included a 2-story atrium, complete with skylights along the entire length of the residence. It also has a basement level, complete with an elevator connecting all 3 floors.
Well, I hope you enjoyed the pictures. I posted more than planned, but they were all so beautiful it was hard to leave any out (but I did). Oh yes, after the tour we enjoyed a wonderful lunch at Brock's in Downtown Fredericksburg.