Hi Carl! I for one enjoy touring other private gardens immensely and I too have learned a lot from them. There are far more tours in the east generally, at least NE and the mid-Atlantic, than there are in this area. My old garden was on a Garden Conservancy tour more than 15 years ago, but the GC runs few tours in this part of the midwest, and Ann Arbor specifically is no longer a tour site as it was at least then. The local Farm and Garden women's group runs tours annually which are well attended. i have been on local garden tours that I just stumbled across in other parts of the country. I for one would love a national 'compendium' of all garden tours across the US, so that if I were travelling somewhere I could check the list and see what tours might be available.

I like to have people come through my own garden and like visiting others too. One thing that is sort of disappointing is that most garden tours are very clustered in June and July, and there relatively few tours that highlight gardens in other months (though yes of course, areas with wonderful springs, Charleston, Virginia of course) often have spring tours. My own garden has interest from March (some years anyway) into November and sometimes I wish there were more available in the way of tours that showed garden beyond their single best season or weekend. How many 'hellebore weekends" or "fall color" weekends are there in northern gardens that show what can be done in gardens to extend thier normal season beyond that which all local gardeners recognize? I think it would be great to be able to see individual gardens through a much greater sequence of seasons than most tours highlight -- though of course, seeing any interesting garden at a single timepoint is worth it.

David

I have often wished for a list of garden tours that I could easily refer to when planning a trip to a different part of the country. I make it a point to seek out botanical gardens and even garden centers wherever I go. Some people bring home souvenirs....I bring home plants! :)

I have seen the Garden Conservancy advertised in gardening magazines but never really understood out it worked. Thank you for the information.

And yes, I think a forum that listed outstanding gardens to visit would be wonderful. I have, on a few occasions, visited advertised gardens that were just not my cup of tea. And, I have visited gardens I chanced upon with no prior knowledge of them that were a delight. It would be nice to get recommendations by other gardeners with no profit to be gained by their opinion.

I had the privilege of visiting Butchart gardens two years ago while on vacation. That was the most I have ever paid to visit a garden, but still less than a day at Disney World. I'll take Butchart anytime! :)

Good point about too many of the tours occurring during "peak" months of
June/July. . .in my own gardens, I let the flowering shrubs and a few bulbs get me through the Spring, but most of my focus this past decade has been toward developing a lengthy Fall garden, from late August right into November - it has definitely become my favorite garden period, but with a little research (and touring other gardens during that time span!). I have discovered there is a wealth of plant material that thrives late in the season. But things may be changing here on Northeast garden tours: there are currently 13 Open Days listed for NY, NJ and New England in August, September and October, which means we'll get to see dozens of late season gardens this year.

A lot of the best gardens to be seen early or late in the season tend be public gardens - I'm thinking here of Winterthur, or Chanticleer, or the New York or Brooklyn Botanical Gardens. . .I suspect the same is true for you in the northern reaches of the mid-West. By the way, you mentioned your own garden is part of a Fall tour: how about details, so that a bunch of us GW folks can hire buses and descend on you from every direction ! :0)

Carl

I can't think of a single Garden Conservancy tour Open Days garden that I visited that wasn't worth the trip. And they usually have them set up so that you can visit a few gardens in a day. This was all in Connecticut and upstate NY when I lived back east.

I think I looked into it for here in the L.A. area when I first moved out here but if I remember correctly it was all done in this weird hush hush way for secrecy where you had to go some place and buy the tickets and then you got directions on where the gardens were. So I ended up passing. But maybe I will check it out this year.

But yeah anyone in the CT/NY area really should check them out. The gardeners are often very nice to talk to as well.

Clematisintegrifolia: there are three Open Days in your Los Angeles area this year, in April, May and June, as well four more days in the SF area, if you head
north at all.

Here is a link that might be useful: Open Days 2010 Schedule

Yeah my issue with it last time was that I like to plan ahead and I swear the way they did it here was like some kind of weird undercover drug deal. lol

It was like "The homeowners really like their privacy so we are not going to publish the list of gardens. You show up at this appointed spot with your money and we'll give you your tickets and a list with directions."

I'm more of a Google Maps so I can tell exactly what kind of traffic I will be dealing with, and get an aerial shot of the garden so I can get some clues ahead of time if it is something I am going to be interested in, kind of guy.

I'll have to see if I have one of the Open Days books handy. If I looked at a list of the CT/NY ones it would probably jog my memory of some of the excellent ones that are must sees.

Slightly off topic, well just a bit. If any of you keen garden tourers ever come over to the UK try to get hold of 'The Yellow Book' before you arrive. It's a national list of gardens, both private and public, which are open to visitors. Gets you into all sorts of places, some huge estates and some tiny back gardens but all interesting.

Here is a link that might be useful: The Yellow Book

Well OK, I have a fall tour here Sept 19, I share Carl's feelings about the joy of a fall garden, and most local gardeners have long gone to sleep or planted a few mums, the garden equivalent....even in the cold ugly upper midwest z5, gardeners should get every inch of interest out of April-November, and it is possible even in a small garden, with effort........but I do wish I lived in a more benevolent, year round climate. Just returned from Portland OR and NW Garden nursery in Eugene, to see that a garden can be completely sublime in mid-Feb is a joy, and you folks in Atlanta, NJ, hey anywhere milder than ME, shouldn't be far behind....

our local gardening society is mainly run by little old biddies (no offence to anyone who feels they may be one) who pooh-pooh non-native plants and who use the gardening tours as a means of socializing, gossiping and the like. I went one year, with the intent of trying to put my own garden on the tour in subsequent years, but the conversations from the venerated members soured me to the idea.

This is a town where I was asked (ok, threatened under penalty of a fine) to trim bushes (which were vines atop a 6-7 foot trellis, fully laden with ripening fruit) due to their being visible from the street (but only if you step into my driveway) and the garden-club wrote about an elderly gentleman growing tomatoes in the cracks in his driveway, which he has been doing for the past couple years since he lost his license.

The mother of a co-worker of my wife's is a member and she clues me in to their annual native plant sale. Twice I've bought plants only to find out in time that they were mis-identified. I haven't been back since.

~Chills

Well, on behalf of biddies everywhere...

No, seriously, bless your heart! That sucks, dude. My condolences. If you don't mind, though, I would appreciate it if you could post some pictures this summer of the old guy with the tomatoes in his cracks. That sounds like a hoot, so pass it along if you get a chance. In the meantime, hang in there. Give the "venerated" folks my best.

The Garden Conservancy Days tend to be in September here in my area. I usually go to a few, but not all of the gardens as all the gardens are in the next city over.

Flora - thanks for the Yellow Book link! WOW!

I just wrote about the gardens in my area of North Carolina and noted which are free and which aren't.

It would be great to have this information from other folks. For example -- the Buffalo Garden Walk folks who have open gardens in July. I'd love to go, but it's a bit of a drive from NC to NY.

Cameron

Here is a link that might be useful: Ten Gardens to Visit in the North Carolina Triangle

Hey chills, I would be curious where the "old biddies", z 6b part of the Michigan gardenind community is. I guess there can only be a few areas, since most of Michigan is WAY colder than that, must be Berrien Co, maybe Traverse City or somewhere withing a few miles of L Michigan, or maybe right alond Lake Erie N of Toledo. We are z 5b here, maybe 6a with optimism. But we have not had mild winters the past few years -- not like the early-mid 90s. Those were good years for the stock market AND gardens. David

Think East side of the state, north of Windsor, Ontario. And you're right, I'm hugging the water. My mother in law 3 miles west of me sees a zone colder temperatures.

SCS Yardners (the club of biddies)

I've got wireless thermometers all over my yard and this year (and 3 out of the last 5) I've pulled a zone 7a. (assuming this winter doesn't throw anything else cold at us)

~Chills PS...you must be in the suburbs of Detroit yourself I'm guessing by your zone rating.