Historic Garden Week

May 18, 2022

2007 Tour Chairman Muff Nolde, The Boxwood Garden Club

2008 Tour Chairman Tricia Sauer, The Tuckahoe Garden Club of Westhampton

2007 Historic Garden Week Preview and Business Report

2008 Historic Garden Week Preview and Business Report

2007 Historic Garden Week featured Northern Neck’s “Peace of Pocahontas” on the Guidebook cover in celebration of the 400th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown.

Chairman Muff Nolde and HGW Director Suzanne Munson reported large crowds and excellent weather for most of the tours.

They followed with tributes to HGW Administrator Susan Flowers, who had earlier announced her plans to retire, effective the end of May 2007 after twenty years in that position. Susan began in the Kent-Valentine House HGW headquarters in 1987 with an IBM Selectric typewriter – no computer, no copy machine, no fax and phones old enough to have rotary dials. She kept books using handwritten ledgers. Susan has seen the HGW office through major construction and through the transition into today’s world of computer technology. Susan was presented with a lovely painting of flowers by one of her favorite artists, Julie Ross, and was given a lifetime, statewide pass, signed by the President of the Garden Club of Virginia.

The HGW Committee held the first marketing and public relations workshop at the Kent-Valentine House on October 30, 2007, for all 2008 HGW publicity chairmen.

Tricia Sauer became Historic Garden Week Chairman in 2008, celebrating the event’s 75th anniversary. Fredericksburg’s Kenmore, the Garden Club of Virginia’s first restoration project, was featured on the Guidebook cover. Tricia and HGW Director Suzanne Munson reported at the spring 2008 Annual Meeting that internet tickets sales for the 2008 tour had tripled and revenue had topped $800,000 for the first time in history. International acclaim came from Mexico, the United Kingdom, Germany and France and included mention on a British list of “Hip and Historic” places to visit. Virginia Living magazine featured HGW with the headline, “Ladies Who Launch,” and a Richmond Times Dispatch op-ed by Calder Loth was titled, “Celebrating 75 Years: Historic Garden Week Reflects Happiness.”